Bear Eats Man: Black Bear Consumes ’85 Percent’ Of Man Who Suffered Cardiac Arrest

Headlines declaring “Bear Eats Man” took over the internet this weekend. According to Yahoo! News, 65-year-old Marion Lee Williams suffered cardiac arrest while outside of his trailer in Humboldt County, California, a densely wooded area. Before anyone found the man’s body or was able to call 911, a black bear came along and grabbed his body. The bear then dragged Williams to a nearby cave… and ate him.

“It looks like he collapsed and died. The bear comes along and sees a potential food source,” said county deputy coroner Roy Horton.

It is unknown how long Williams’ body had been laying on the ground, but officials say that the bear does not pose a threat to others in the area.

When a bear eats a man, it is just “doing what bears do,” according to Andrew Hughan, spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Even still, officials tried to trap the bear with the intention of killing it, but the effort was called off because the bear was no longer in the area.

According to The Huffington Post, Williams had been walking to a “water source” when he had a heart attack. Black bears are generally known to be “timid and non-aggressive,” which suggests that the bear had nothing to do with the man’s cause of death. Officials say that the bear must have smelled the man’s decaying body, and like any wild animal, followed the scent right to the source.

The bear ate 85 percent of the man’s body. According to The Inquisitr, Williams was identified by his fingerprints, teeth, and an article of clothing left behind. Those who went looking for Williams at his home said that they could smell something foul — likely the man’s decaying body, however, the man’s body was found completely torn apart — something that most didn’t expect. Presumably, officials were able to follow a trace — of either blood or smell — to locate the body and put the pieces together.

It is unknown if Williams was married or if he had any children, but he did live alone.

“Mr. Williams lived alone and ‘off the grid’ in a trailer in the thick woods of Northern California, near the town of Briceland. He had last been seen on October 8, but he wasn’t reported missing for several days because he mostly kept to himself. Eventually friends reported him missing and found his body.”

[Photo courtesy of Harlan Kredit via Wikimedia Commons]