The body of a missing convicted murderer was dragged out of a car by a bear that ate part of it and buried the rest, authorities in Canada said Saturday, according to reports.
Rory Nelson Wagner, 53, was out on parole from a murder sentence when he vanished from Kamloops, B.C., on May 23., CTV reported.
The black bear was later euthanized by conservation officers, CTV said late Saturday.
The Vancouver Sun said Wagner and two others were charged with killing a man who they believed had sexually assaulted their family member.
Wagner eventually pleaded guilty to murder and was convicted in 1996, according to BCLocalNews.com. Parole documents show the murder victim was charged with the sexual assault but found not guilty shortly before the killing.
Hunters came across the remains after finding an abandoned Volkswagen Jetta on a logging road. The bear pulled Wagner’s corpse from the vehicle through an open window and buried him under a pile of dirt and vegetation.
When the hunters made the grisly find, the bear was still in the area, protecting the food stash, BCLocalNews reported.
Conservation officer Darcy MacPhee told CTV: “The bite mark measurements that we had from the body matched perfectly with the teeth on that [euthanized] bear, so we were confident that we had the animal that had been feeding on this person.”
There were conflicting reports about whether Wagner had committed suicide in the car, ahead of autopsy and toxicology tests to determine the likely cause of death.
“It’s not going to be particularly difficult. In any case, it does take several weeks for toxicology results to come back. It’s fairly standard,” coroner Mark Coleman told the Vancouver Sun.
More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:
- Secret donors, foreign firms bankroll UK’s Diamond Jubilee celebration
- Anger as Egypt’s ex-ruler Mubarak gets life in prison, not death
- In Cairo, cheers and fears over Mubarak sentencing
- NATO rescues doctors kidnapped by Taliban in ‘extraordinarily brave’ operation
- British monarchy’s critics face uphill battle during jubilee
- Mourning the loss of more lives in Syria
Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world
Related posts:
Views: 0