A bear, a moose, or something else? Mystery of ivory carver's injuries deepens

The mystery surrounding what exactly left ivory carver Fred Mayac bloody and unconscious in South Anchorage June 8 deepened Wednesday with the public release of a five-page Alaska Department Fish and Game report on its investigation, paired with continued concern from Mayac's co-workers about possible foul play.

The report, written by Fish and Game biologists, traced the investigation from June 8 to June 22 as the suspected cause of Mayac's injuries changed from a criminal assault to a bear attack to a moose stomping. The report, dated June 28 and released Wednesday, shows the biologists were uncertain about the moose-stomping story and questioned whether Mayac was instead assaulted by a person wielding a hammer or a garden tool.

Mayac remained hospitalized Wednesday and may never talk again, according to co-worker Flossie Spencer, who said she last visited him at his hospital bed on Friday. Spencer said she had yet to hear Mayac's side of the story. Without it, authorities are left piecing together the clues left behind from the June 8 attack, including Mayac's injuries. Fish and Game got involved when medical personnel treating Mayac said they thought a bear had attacked the 50-year-old man.

Jennifer Castro, Anchorage Police Department spokeswoman, said earlier this month that Mayac's case was assigned to detectives in the robbery and assault unit. Mayac's co-workers at Anchorage's Arctic Bed and Breakfast said police brought over a lineup once, but they could not positively identify anyone from the photographs.

It's those co-workers who have continued to express concern in media interviews that it was a person who attacked their friend, Mayac, not wildlife. Robert Jones, who also works at Arctic Bed and Breakfast, said in an interview last week that he saw Mayac leave the building off Arctic Boulevard June 8 with a man who he had never seen before. That was just hours before Mayac was found unconscious.

Jones said he knows the time because every night he watches "Jeopardy" and "Wheel of Fortune" with another person who lives in the building. When the shows ended, shortly after 7 p.m., he walked down the second-floor hallway and saw Mayac leaving his room with the unknown man. He followed them down the stairs and out the front door.

"The guy held the back of Fred's shirt and put him in the car," Jones said. "It was a white guy, straight brown hair down to his shoulders. He had a big nose. Fred said this guy was his probation officer."

But Mayac didn't have a probation officer, according to Corey Allen-Young, spokesman for the Alaska Department of Corrections. Mayac was convicted of attempted sexual abuse of a minor in 2003 and Allen-Young said Mayac completed his probation in 2012.

Jones said Mayac and the man drove off in a red car. He said he didn't say anything at the time because it didn't look like Mayac was struggling and he assumed that perhaps he was being taken to jail.

"Fred wasn't fighting him at all, so I didn't think much about it," he said.

Later that night, around 9 p.m., a 911 caller reported that a man was lying near an unpaved, private road near Cook Inlet, off Selkirk Drive. The gravel road runs through Campbell Creek Estuary Natural Area to a home on 5 acres at the park's eastern edge. It's more than 6 miles from Arctic Bed and Breakfast.

According to Fish and Game's report, the 911 caller was driving down the road when the man, later identified as Mayac, staggered up to his car and collapsed. Mayac had injuries to his chest, throat and head. The caller said it looked like Mayac was stabbed with a knife. Mayac was taken to the hospital.

Early the next morning, police told Fish and Game about a possible bear mauling in South Anchorage, according to Wednesday's report. There, a campground host told biologists that she had seen moose, not bears, in the area.

"There was a large pool of blood in the road, a drag mark leading from the blood a few feet into the woods, more blood just inside the wood line, and a blood spot about a foot from the ground on a tree," the report said. "There were a large number of moose hoof prints in the road in the immediate vicinity of the large pool of blood." The report didn't say whether the blood was tested to see if it was human or animal.

Some time after 7:45 a.m. that next morning, biologists Dave Battle and Cory Stantorf called their supervisor and said Mayac may have been attacked by a moose. But then, the two biologists talked to the 911 caller who lived at the end of the private drive. He told the biologists that a small black bear had recently approached him in his driveway and he couldn't scare the bear away.

"The report of the bear's presence and behavior led to a re-evaluation as to what type of animal was involved in the attack," the report said. "At this point, Battle and Stantorf were faced with conflicting evidence."

On one hand, medical staff had decided that a bear caused Mayac's injuries and a bear was seen in the general area after the attack. On the other hand, biologists had observed moose tracks and some moose hair at the site of the attack and at least one moose was seen in the area during the police investigation, according to the report.

Biologists decided that since there was a recent animal attack and the bear appeared to be unafraid, they would kill it if possible.

At 10:30 a.m., Battle was talking on his cellphone when a small black bear approached. He killed the bear with a single shot from a 12-gauge shotgun, per Fish and Game protocol, the report said. In the bear's stomach, Fish and Game staff found "birdseed and suet with small amounts of dandelions and muscle, likely from a moose calf," the report said.

Later at police headquarters on Tudor Road, biologists looked at photographs of Mayac's wounds and determined they were not consistent with a bear attack and could have been inflicted by a moose. Biologists also learned that doctors had found a single hair on Mayac's chest, according to the report.

On June 10, biologists went to Providence hospital to pick up the hair and talk to the surgeon. They looked at Mayac's injuries and determined that they weren't the typical damage expected from the four-point grip of a bear bite and they weren't the parallel cuts caused by a bear claw tearing across skin.

Biologists determined that the sharp hooves of a young moose hitting no more than four or five times, "without breaking ribs/bones, could be one possible cause of the victim's wounds," the report said.

But it turned out later that the single hair found on Mayac's chest did not belong to a moose, according to the report. The report didn't say who or what it came from.

According to the report, Battle asked a surgeon if Mayac's wounds could have been caused by a garden hoe or claw hammer. The doctor said he did not think an assault led to Mayac's wounds, "but that the Medical Examiner would be more experienced in identifying the cause of specific injuries," the report said.

However, Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Gary Zientek said in an interview Wednesday that no one had contacted his office about Mayac's case. Typically, he said, "our jurisdiction involves people who have died and not the living." He said in his experience the Anchorage Police Department had employees "who are very experienced in interpreting wounds."

Jennifer Castro, Anchorage Police Department spokeswoman, said in an email earlier this month that she could not provide additional information on Mayac's case. She said that earlier information from police that the investigation was closed in Mayac's case was inaccurate.

Castro said Wednesday evening that detectives were not available.

According to the Fish and Game report, biologists handed over the single hair to police on June 22.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said that Mayac suffered bruises among his injuries.