One can of bear spray had been fully discharged but this bear was not to be deterred,” reported the deceased man’s uncle
A family member of the couple who were killed by a grizzly bear while visiting Canada’s Banff National Park on Friday, recently revealed they sent a distressing text before the attack.
The two backcountry campers, Doug Inglis, 62, and Jenny Gusse, 62, were identified by Doug’s uncle, Colin Inglis.
“They are a couple that loved each other and loved the outdoors. And they were highly, highly experienced in being out back, whether it be serious treks or canoeing, whitewater canoeing in the North country,” shared Colin, reports Canadian broadcaster CBC.
The victims were providing daily updates of their trip to Colin, through the help of their Garmin inReach, which is a commonly used GPS amongst campers and hikers that allows texting from remote locations.
Colin explained to CBC that he had received a message that the couple hadn’t reached their planned destination for Friday, Sept. 29. They soon notified their families they were okay, set up camp at a different location, and prepared dinner for themselves.
Later in the evening, Colin recalled that he received an SOS from Garmin GPS that read “’Bear attack bad.'” In addition to the Garmin message, the Parks Canada Agency was made aware that there was an alert indicating a bear attack was at the Red Deer River Valley west of Ya Ha Tinda Ranch at around 8 p.m. MT on Friday.
Once Parks Canada was notified, they dispatched a response team via helicopter at 10:31 p.m. However, due to overcast weather, it couldn’t land until 2 a.m. on Saturday. After the response team arrived, they found the couple and their border collie mauled to death, said Colin, reports Calgary Head.
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