Officials: Elderly Man and His Dog Killed in Florida’s First Deadly Black Bear Attack

Authorities confirmed on Friday a deadly black bear incident in Jerome, Florida, after an elderly man went missing from his home.

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) it was the first fatal black bear attack in the state, Fox News reported on Saturday.

The Collier County Sheriff’s Office alerted the FWC to the situation on Monday after the man’s relatives reported he had gone missing from his home. The family members said there were “signs of recent disturbances that could have been caused by a bear or bears around the property,” the FWC said in a press release on Friday.

Authorities rushed to the site to secure the area and found the remains of 89-year-old Robert Markel about 100 yards from his home:

Investigators noted several key findings: (1) evidence indicating a physical encounter between a bear and a person near the residence; (2) a dog recently killed by a bear in close proximity to a person; and (3) signs that a bear had entered the residence itself. The exact sequence of events remains unclear. The FWC’s Human-Bear Conflict Response Policies and Guidelines outline how the agency should respond when faced with situations that require the removal of a bear for public safety. In this case, each of the three documented circumstances mentioned above requires lethal removal. The FWC does not make that decision lightly.

Officials with FWC later lethally removed three adult male bears, the largest weighing 434 pounds and tried to trap a fourth bear but were only able to collect DNA evidence. The animal carcasses were sent to laboratories.

Video footage shows FWC officers removing a black bear from the woods off State Road 29:

“Necropsy results revealed that one bear (263-pound male) contained the partial remains of Markel. DNA results received on Friday, May 9, positively identified that the 263-pound male’s DNA was present on Markel, inside his residence and on the dog’s body. The only bear DNA found at the scene matched the three bears lethally taken. All three bears were tested for rabies, and all results were negative,” the FWC said.

Officials noted there are approximately 4,000 black bears in the state of Florida, per Fox 13.

“There have now been at least two bear attacks in Florida since last week. A woman in Sanford was attacked outside her home while walking her dog, and said she used a bag of cookies as a distraction to get to safety,” the outlet continued.