DNA results have confirmed that the black bear involved in a deadly attack near Lillooet last month has been euthanized by the B.C. Conservation Officer Service.
Saliva found on the clothing of 72-year-old Bernice Evelyn Adolph matches that of a black bear destroyed at the scene by conservation officers on July 9. All traps have been removed from the area.
The BC Coroners Service confirmed last week that the Xaxli'p elder died of a bear attack, which occurred on June 26, four days before her remains were discovered on her remote property. Five bears found in close proximity to the attack site were euthanized over the course of the investigation.
Meanwhile despite being told by conservation officers that his injuries were unrelated to a bear attack, Whistler's Jeffrey Almond, 34, is staying the course of his original hypothesis that he was swatted at by a bear in a dense patch of forest in the Bayshores neighbourhood as he was returning home from a party in the early hours of the morning June 29. He has no memory of how he got his injuries.
"I still feel that is exactly what happened," he said from Ontario, where he is recuperating with family.
"(Conservation) looked at my medical records and don't feel what happened to me could have been done by a bear because bear attacks are more gruesome, but I think what happened to me was over and done with in seconds.
"But something happened that scared the bear away. The rest of the findings were based on not being able to find bear hair on my clothes, nine days after it happened and they couldn't find any evidence at the site, nine days after it happened. They can't unequivocally say it was a bear attack, but at the same time there is nothing that says it wasn't, in my opinion."
Almond said he was attacked by something, and that his doctors agreed.
