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Survivor recalls bear attack; suspect griz captured

Posted: Jul 29, 2010 9:25 AM by CBS News/KTVQ-Billings
Updated: Jul 29, 2010 11:06 AM

 Bear attack survivor Deb Freele
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Montana wildlife officials have captured a female grizzly bear and two of her three cubs in a campground near the location where a man was killed and two others injured in a bear attack.

The bear was captured in a culvert trap on Wednesday evening, and two of her three cubs were captured overnight. Officials believe that the captured bear is responsible for the attacks, which killed one person and injured two others.

The man who was killed by the bear has been identified as Kevin Kammer of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Kammer is survived by his wife and four children. Kammer's brother-in-law Jim Howard told WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids that Kammer was an avid fisherman and was in Montana by himself, adding, "It was kind of a dream of his to be able to go fly fishing in Montana because it's beautiful fly fishing country. I know he was very excited to go on this trip."

One of the people who survived the attack, Deb Freele, appeared on the CBS Early Show and recalled the experience.

She said that she was asleep in her tent in Yellowstone National Park before waking up suddenly in the early morning hours Wednesday. A split second later, a bear was mauling her.

"Next thing I know, this bear is chewing on my arm. I screamed. He bit harder. I screamed harder," she told "Early Show" co-anchor Erica Hill Thursday from a Cody, Wyoming hospital.

Armed officials inspected the scene at the Soda Butte Campgrounds trying to determine if the same animal was responsible for all three maulings, reports CBS News correspondent Priya David-Clemens.

Andrea Jones, of Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, told reporters, "These were three individual campers at three individual camp sites."

In Freele's case, she said she sustained multiple bite wounds before determining that "screaming was not working."

"I don't know if you call it instinct, but something inside me just said ... 'I want to live.' And I just told myself, 'Play dead.' ... As soon as I went limp, I [could] feel his jaws get loose and then he let me go and he went away."

Freele was camping with her husband, but he didn't hear the attack take place. "He was sleeping in his tent. He makes a lot of noise when he sleeps, so we don't sleep in the same tent," Freele said.

The campground has a history of bear attacks. Two years ago Steven Bartley was mauled by a grizzly bear. The bear crushed several bones in his hand as he struggled to fight off the animal. "What I got attacked by was a 350-pound female bear at 3 a.m., and I can't think of anything more scary in my life. ... I wouldn't sleep in a tent in bear country for anything," Bartley said.

Freele, who has years of camping experience, said she didn't know how the attack would affect future camping outings. But she chalked it up to an " absolutely freaky thing."

Wildlife experts are collecting bear hair, saliva and droppings while measuring the bite wounds of the victims to determine the type and number of bears involved, David-Clemens reports. This is the height of camping season and Soda Butte Campgrounds remains closed.

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