WADE DUNLAP (left), game warden for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, reviews photographs with detective Jeff Lewis of the Ashtabula County Sheriff's Department Tuesday during a press conference following Monday's mauling of a woman by a bear in Hartsgrove Township. WARREN DILLAWAY / The Star Beacon
Published May 24, 2006 07:45 am -
Hartsgrove Township BEAR ATTACK: TEEN's actions credited with saving MOM's life
Star Beacon
By WARREN DILLAWAY
and MARK TODD
Staff Writers
JEFFERSON - A quick-thinking teenager saved her mother from a bear that ambushed the woman inside her Hartsgrove Township home Monday afternoon, according to Ashtabula County sheriff's deputies.
Daphne Supplee, 15, distracted the 500-pound black bear from its attack by tossing meat she retrieved from a refrigerator at the animal, deputies said at a press conference Tuesday morning.
"That girl probably saved her mom's life," said Lt. Greg Leonhard. "She thought quickly on her feet. A lot of adults wouldn't have been able to do that."
Rachel Supplee, 36, of 6434 Route 6 W., was listed
in stable condition Monday night at St. Elizabeth's Health Center in Youngstown. Supplee suffered a bruised lung, broken rib and lacerations "from the top of her head to her feet," deputies said.
Hospital staff would not comment on Supplee's condition Tuesday afternoon.
Leonhard played a recording of Daphne's 911 emergency call to the sheriff's department, received around 2:45 p.m.
"It's in our living room," Daphne said during the call, emotion evident in her voice but in control of the situation. "It's on top of my mom."
The bear was shot and killed by its owner, Mark Gutman, who owns and operates Grand River Fur Exchange, 6310 Route 6 W., according to reports. The business is a short distance from the Supplee residence, deputies said.
Gutman is a licensed commercial game propagator who keeps other wildlife, including at least one other bear, on the premises, officials have said.
Gutman told deputies he wanted to get rid of the bear last year because it was "aggressive" but found no takers, according to a report. The animal was not euthanized because Gutman and his girlfriend "were attached to it," deputies said in a report.
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