{"id":567216,"date":"2026-07-03T16:16:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T16:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/567216\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T16:16:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T16:16:21","slug":"nurse-screamed-two-haunting-words-as-she-was-dragged-from-tent-and-mauled-by-bear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/567216\/","title":{"rendered":"Nurse screamed two haunting words as she was dragged from tent and mauled by bear"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 65-year-old nurse was enjoying a bike riding trip with her sister and friend when she decided to camp out in her tent – but a 400lb grizzly bear mauled and killed her\"LEAH<\/p>\n

Nurse Leah Lokan was killed in a grizzly bear attack(Image: Copyright unknown)<\/p>\n

A nurse was dragged from her tent by a huge 400lb grizzly bear and then mauled before her campmates scared it off.<\/p>\n

However, it was too late and Leah Davis Lokan tragically died of her harrowing injuries.<\/p>\n

Leah had been enjoying a multi-day bike riding trip with her sister Kim Lokan and their friend Katherine Boerner when they stopped off in Ovando, Montana, a popular yet tiny town on the much loved 2,700-mile Great Divide Mountain Bike route.<\/p>\n

On July 5 2021, the trio decided to spend the night in Ovando, with Kim and Katherine opting to stay in a hotel but Leah chose to camp outside in her tent, setting up in a grassy area behind the Ovando Brand Bar Museum.<\/p>\n

Leah wasn\u2019t alone though – the group had met couple Joe and Kim Cole, from Amarillo, Texas, during their bicycle trip, who were also camping that night.<\/p>\n

\"FILE<\/p>\n

An undated file photo provided by the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks shows a grizzly bear spotted near Camas, in northwestern Montana(Image: Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks via AP, File)<\/p>\n

Leah, 65 at the time, set her tent up next to Joe and Kim\u2019s.<\/p>\n

In the early hours of July 6, chaos and tragedy ensued. According to a report issued via an interagency Board of Review (BOR) made up of state and federal personnel, Ms Lokan and the Coles were woken up by a bear near their tents at around 3.08am.<\/p>\n

The nurse realised what was happening and called out \u201cbear, bear!\u201d to alert her campmates.<\/p>\n

After all three of them got up and made noise, the bear left the area and they believed that would be the last they\u2019d see of it.<\/p>\n

As a safety precaution, Ms Lokan moved her food, including dried lentils and packaged snacks, from her tent and put it in a building nearby.<\/p>\n

Hauntingly, Lokan told Joe and Kim: \u201cThe bear huffed at my head.\u201d The couple asked Leah if she wanted to go and stay at a hotel but she told them no.<\/p>\n

She returned to her tent armed with bear spray and she and the Coles went back to sleep. According to the report, \u201cthe Coles were again awoken by noise at approximately 4.05am and they realised that Ms Lokan was being attacked by a bear.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Huge<\/p>\n

Leah Lokan was attacked and killed by a 400lb grizzly bear(Image: Facebook)<\/p>\n

Unlike the first encounter with the bear, Leah didn\u2019t call out this time. Joe Cole realised what was happening and shouted \u201cbear, bear!\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the report, he unzipped his tent all while \u201cyelling in a roaring-like voice\u201d before spraying his can of bear spray. Kim followed and \u201cbegan blowing her whistle\u201d.<\/p>\n

The bear could be seen on the other side of Lokan\u2019s tent and was said to be \u201cpouncing up and down\u201d on her and her tent.<\/p>\n

Joe got closer, continuing to spray at the bear to try and ward it off.<\/p>\n

According to the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee report, \u201cthe bear made eye contact with Joe, then averted its head as they approached closer, turned, and left.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple could see Lokan had been dragged by the bear around eight to 10 feet and \u201cwas half out of the tent and sleeping bag showing no signs of life\u201d.<\/p>\n

They then ran to a nearby shop and inn to wake guests up for more help.<\/p>\n

Emergency responders arrived on the scene. The Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee report states \u201cafter initial attempts to perform CPR and AED, it was determined there were no obvious signs of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

It adds: \u201cThere is no way of knowing how much bear spray the bear received nor what impact the bear spray may have had on the bear. However, it is obvious that the bear left the attack scene because of Joe\u2019s aggressive response and action.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bear made no attempt to defend the body.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leah suffered injuries including \u201csevere lacerations to her head, neck, shoulders, and back\u201d but \u201cthe bear had not fed upon the victim\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 65-year-old nurse was enjoying a bike riding trip with her sister and friend when she decided to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567217,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[100,14996,9,10,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,5448,65,66,67],"class_list":["post-567216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-animals","tag-bears","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-viral","tag-world","tag-world-news","tag-worldnews"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116856946507623990","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}