Tests identify bear that killed Clyde girl

CLEVELAND, Tenn. - One of the two bears captured at a national forest in Tennessee has been identified as the animal responsible for the fatal attack of a Clyde, Ohio, girl, on April 13, officials announced yesterday.

Ron Fox, assistant director of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, said DNA samples taken from the front claws determined a 211-pound bear that was captured four days after the attack was responsible for the fatal attack.

Elora Petrasek, 6, was killed; her mother, Susan Cenkus, 45, and her 2-year-old son, Luke, were mauled in the Cherokee National Forest at Benton Falls, near the Chilhowee Recreation Area.

A 203-pound black bear captured three days after the attack was initially suspected and was euthanized, but a second bear trapped a day later was determined to be the culprit.

The second male bear was trapped nearly a mile from the attack site and kept alive during the investigation. It too has now been euthanized, the agency said.

"Various laboratories including the TWRA, United States Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation recently provided reports on a variety of forensic tests conducted on the two captured bears," Mr. Fox said in a statement. "The items submitted brought us positive results that the second bear captured was responsible for the fatal attack."

Authorities said Ms. Cenkus threw rocks and sticks in an attempt to fight off the black bear that killed her daughter. The animal dragged the girl down the trail her family was hiking and mauled her. Luke suffered a puncture wound to his head that depressed the skull onto the brain.

Ms. Cenkus, who is a registered nurse at Bellevue (Ohio) Hospital, suffered eight puncture wounds in the neck and other injuries that require further surgeries, officials said. She returned to Ohio on May 2 to attend her daughter's funeral.

Dr. Mike Tabor, chief forensic dentist at the state medical examiner's office, who examined photos of bite marks on the victims, said in his report that both bears' dental features were similar in size and shape with no distinctive markers.

Mr. Fox said some of the wounds depicted on the photographs were consistent with the size and shape of both black bears.

He said it was the agency's policy to destroy wild black bears proved to be involved in an attack on a human. The second bear's body will be examined for abnormalities that could point to a cause for its violent behavior, Mr. Fox said.

"We are confident that the animal responsible for this tragedy has been eliminated from the wild bear population of the Cherokee National Forest," he said.

Tom Speaks, supervisor of the U.S. Forest Service's Cherokee National Forest, said that the closed areas around Chilhowee Mountain will reopen tomorrow. The park area and trails have been closed for the two months since the attack.

Rangers estimate there are 1,500 bears in the park.