Grizzly shot, killed following lethal attack of California woman

HELENA Mont. (AP) — Wildlife officers say they’ve shot, killed Montana grizzly bear that pulled California girl from tent, killing her.

Leah Davis Lokan of Chico, California, was an experienced outdoor female and bike owner who was on a mountain biking trip. She and her social gathering were being camped by Ovando’s article office environment early Tuesday when she was attacked.

Mates reported Lokan was a cost-free spirit, aggressive and adventuresome and was informed of the potential risks she confronted on the trip.

THIS IS A BREAKING News UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows underneath.

HELENA Mont. (AP) — A very small western Montana city exactly where a grizzly bear pulled a female from her tent and killed her this week welcomes website visitors year-round to the mountain valley local community alongside the banking institutions of a river produced famed by the film “A River Operates As a result of It.”

They arrive to Ovando to fish, hike, camp and float the river in the summer time and to snowmobile, cross state ski or snow shoe in the wintertime.

The warmer months also bring bicyclists traversing the scenic Good Divide Mountain Bicycle Route, which this year runs almost 2,500 miles (4,023 kilometers) from northern Montana to southern New Mexico.

A crack in the extensive-predicted experience on that route is what brought Leah Davis Lokan, 65, of Chico, California, to the town on Monday for an right away keep, her friends claimed.

She and her get together were camped in close proximity to the town’s post office environment and museum when a grizzly bear pulled her out of her tent and killed her early Tuesday, officials mentioned. It was the 2nd time the bear was at the campsite that night, they said.

Wildlife officials put in Thursday attempting to discover and eliminate the approximately 400-pound (181-kilogram) bear, but arrived up empty for a third straight working day.

The sheriff shut the casual campsites all around city at least right until Sunday and the city opened up a fireplace station and church for cyclists to sleep within. The town currently had an previous jail that had been reworked with some cots for campers, reported Kathleen Schoendoerfer, who owns the Blackfoot Angler fishing shop with her husband, Travis Thurmond.

Ovando sees about 1,000 cyclists for each year who are traveling the Excellent Divide route, Schoendoerfer estimated, with varying numbers being right away.

The route loosely follows the Continental Divide, at moments zig-zagging over it on gravel roads, grime roadways and trails and some single tracks, said Dillon Crucial, who works at Fantastic Divide Cyclery in Helena. There are also some freeway miles.

The route is “absolutely gorgeous” by Montana, taking riders in excess of mountain passes and via big, open up meadows, Vital mentioned.

“A good deal of the cities on the route, smaller towns in the middle of the mountains, are inclined to be really welcoming to divide riders coming by means of,” Important claimed. “There’s a couple farms and ranches along the way that let riders to come remain with them. It is sort of a communal feeling to it. Everyone’s actually welcoming.”

Lokan, a registered nurse who had worked at a clinic in Chico, California, would have in shape right in, said Mike Castaldo, president of the Chico Cycling Club.

“She had a actually good spirit. She generally had a smile on her experience. Often lit up when she saw you. Usually gave you a major hug,” stated Castaldo, who knew Lokan for about 15 several years. “But I imagine most of her id was, you know, outdoors on the bicycle, enjoying the outdoor was her matter.”

She participated in mountain bicycle races and was a road bicycle owner and experienced outdoorswoman.

“I think she was competitive, but that was secondary to the journey or the journey she was on that unique day,” he said Thursday.

Lokan had been seeking ahead to the Montana bicycle vacation for months, explained Mary Bouquets, yet another pal from Chico. Lokan had taken extensive-distance bike excursions and on this one was accompanied by her sister and a pal, Bouquets said.

“She was conversing about her summer months ideas — this great wild experience, using her bike on, I really do not know, a 400-mile vacation or a thing,” Bouquets mentioned. “A girl in her 60s, and she’s undertaking this form of things — she experienced a enthusiasm for lifestyle that was out of the common.”

A further close friend remembered Lokan as a free spirit with several good friends.

“She generally greeted you with a smile. She was a person of those people men and women that was usually up for an experience and constantly manufactured you to feel like you have been the center of her consideration at all periods,” explained Leesa Stefano, who met Lokan when Stefano moved to Sandpoint, Idaho, in 2006 and acquired included in a bicycling club to which Lokan belonged.

Stefano claimed Lokan was the variety of individual who would find a way to test in with anyone at some point to make confident close friends knew they were being nevertheless portion of her existence.

“We were all truly excited for her, due to the fact we know what it intended,” Stefano claimed about the bike journey. “We could not wait to listen to the stories. It’s regarded as an epic journey.”

Lokan and two some others were tenting when a bear startled them at 3 a.m. Tuesday right before wandering off, Montana wildlife officials mentioned. The bicyclists removed food items from their tents, stored it and went back again to rest, officers reported.

About 4:15 a.m., the sheriff’s workplace obtained a 911 simply call following two men and women in a tent in close proximity to the victim’s were awakened by appears of the attack, Powell County Sheriff Gavin Roselles explained. They discharged their bear spray, and the bear ran away.

Lokan was “well versed in what she was performing. She knew the potential risks,” Castaldo claimed, suggesting she might have enable her guard down whilst tenting in a town, alternatively than along the trail.

“The truth that it was proper in town — that is fairly messed up,” Thurmond advised the Missoulian.

Men and women who camp in grizzly bear country — whether or not deep in the woods or in a made campground — are encouraged to keep food and scented solutions like toothpaste absent from their campsites at all situations and to cook dinner in other places.

If a bear arrives via a campsite, it’s vital to remain on lookout for the animal to return, mentioned Greg Lemon, spokesperson for the Montana Division of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

Wildlife officials originally applied helicopter flights to search for the grizzly. They also established up big traps — created out of culverts and baited with roadkill — in and around Ovando. That integrated traps near a rooster coop that the bear raided the night time Lokan was killed, as very well as near the campsite.

Investigators acquired DNA left by the bear in the attack and could evaluate it with any bruin they are in a position to trap. Bear professionals and recreation wardens also had been stationed close to the traps to shoot the animal if the prospect arises, stated Greg Lemon, spokesperson for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

“Our best likelihood would be if the bear comes back again and tries to get yet another chicken or some far more food items all over town,” Lemon explained.

The wardens sense they could quickly discover the bear, which was recorded on a store’s surveillance camera in the minutes right after its initial take a look at to Lokan’s campsite, Lemon stated.

“If they saw that bear at the lure and experienced a apparent shot at it, they may possibly decide on to do that.”

___

This tale has been up to date to accurate the previous identify of one particular of the entrepreneurs of the Blackfoot Angler fishing store. She is Kathleen Schoendoerfer, not Loendoerfer.

___

Brown reported from Billings.