GREAT FALLS — The Powell County Sheriff's Office said this morning that it received a report on Thursday evening from a resident who came home and found her door ripped off, and large claw marks were present. A short time later a male grizzly bear was shot and killed in the area.
Samples were taken from the bear and sent to a testing facility where they hope to make positive identification within a few days. The Sheriff's Office says this is likely the bear that was involved in Tuesday's attack in Ovando that killed 65-year old Leah Davis Lokan of Chico, California.
The bear that killed Lokan entered Ovando on Tuesday morning and came to an area near the post office at about 3 a.m., where the victim was sleeping in a tent. Another couple in her party were sleeping in a tent nearby.
The bear woke the campers but then ran away. The three campers removed food from their tents, secured it, and went back to bed. A video camera at a business less than a block away recorded the bear in the vicinity at about 3:15 a.m.
At about 3:30 a.m. the two people in the tent adjacent to the victim were awakened by sounds of the attack. They got out of the tent and sprayed the bear with bear spray. The bear pulled the victim from the tent during the fatal attack.
At some point during the night the bear also got into a chicken coop in town, killing and eating several chickens.
We will update you as we get more information.
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