A woman from Canada was mauled to death by a bear while standing outside her family’s cabin as she spoke to her father on the phone. Her young son helplessly watched from inside when the gruesome struggle took place.
Forty-four-year-old Stephanie Blais died this past Thursday after a black bear engaged her outside the McKie Lake cabin close to Buffalo Narrows, according to CKOM.
The Saskatchewan mom had her father on the phone as the horror unfolded.
“Stephanie and I were talking over her satellite phone,” Hubert Esquirol, the victim’s devastated father, told CKOM.
“She called me to tell me that the waterline hadn’t been working and that her husband had fixed it. She then told her son, Eli, to run inside and grab an antenna.”
Those were the final words his daughter said to him. Shortly after, the phone line was filled with indistinct gurgling noises. “I stayed on the line for a few minutes before I hung up and tried calling again,” he remembered. “The sounds were very disturbing. An attack crossed my mind but attacks are one in a million.”
Nearly 10 minutes later Blais’s husband, Curtis, got Stephanie’s concerned father back on the phone.
“He called me and told me that Stephanie had been attacked by a bear. The bear wouldn’t let go so he shot the bear until it let go,” Esquirol told CKOM.
“He then proceeded to give her CPR but she had no pulse.”
Blais’s nine-year-old son, Eli, powerlessly watched the horrendous event from inside the family cabin.
The wild Canadian bears have been an ever-present site near the property but have always been passive and kept to themselves, which made the attack more shocking for the woman’s father, he said.
“We never leave any food around, we have never given them a reason to stay. There has never been any provoked bears or any that seemed angry. They would always run off.”
Just a week before his daughter had her getaway in the woods, Esquirol was at the same cabin.
A conservation officer informed the father that the deadly bear was not provoked before the mauling.
“Stephanie would have been in the bear’s sight. She had her back turned. She didn’t see it,” Esquirol says.
After dissecting the animal, it was discovered that its stomach was full of recently eaten berries, which caused the officer to consider that the bear was not looking for food at the time of the attack.
“Curtis handled the situation extremely well,” Esquirol remarked. “It could have been so much worse. The children could have been near her at the time of the attack.”
After the horrific story went public, a GoFundMe was created for Curtis and his children, which has raised nearly $55,000 as of Wednesday.
“Our Stephanie had a zeal for life next to no one else. She was the most loving and passionate mother, who always spoke of how blessed she was to be able to be home and raise her children,” her cousin, Jane Rusbridge, told friends and family in the fundraising post.
“In these dark moments, we can take some comfort that quick actions prevented this unimaginable tragedy from being even worse.”
“These were her most precious days. She was free spirited, and loved the earth. She shared this with anyone who crossed her path. Her joy, passion, love, compassion, wisdom and selflessness was felt by anyone who had the joy of meeting Stephanie.”
As the funding campaign picked up steam, Rusbridge posted an update, reading:
“It is absolutely incredible how our community comes together in times of need! Your support is giving Curtis the gift of finding a way forward with his children and finding a way to honor Steph. Given he is self-employed, you are giving him the gift of time and options, and we know a weight will lift with this generosity. It’s so much more than we hoped for. Words can’t express our families gratitude – so we will simply say THANK YOU!”