Overview

• Authorities identified the victim as Max Thomas, 60, of Springfield, Missouri, whose body was found several yards from his campsite and whose death was ruled an animal mauling by the state medical examiner.
• A male black bear photographed near Sam's Throne Campground on Oct. 5 was treed by hounds and euthanized, then transported to Little Rock for a necropsy and DNA sampling.
• Sheriff Glenn Wheeler said he is extremely confident the recovered bear matches the animal seen in the victim’s photos, but definitive confirmation awaits forensic testing.
• Sam’s Throne Campground and surrounding areas remain closed as officials keep traps and equipment in place and wait for test results to ensure the threat is gone.
• The case follows a separate fatal bear attack in September in Franklin County, an unusual cluster in a state with an estimated 5,000 black bears and a long record of extremely rare fatal incidents.