A couple who were found mauled to death by a bear had recorded the horror attack on video camera later found in their tent. Timothy Treadwell considered bears his friends and traveled to Alaska every summer for 13 years to spend months camping with the wild animals.
Next month marks the 19th anniversary of the death of the 46-year-old, who had had named all the grizzlies and would talk, play and even touch the mammals. Despite persistent warnings from worried friends and family, the former heroin addict considered himself one of the animals and insisted they were simply misunderstood creatures.
However, tragedy stuck one one stormy October evening when, just hours before he was due to board a seaplane to head home for the winter, he was brutally attacked by one of the bears. His girlfriend Amie Huguenard, 37, watched on in terror as the animal clamped its jaws around Timothy's head - before turning on her.
Air taxi pilot Willy Fulton immediately knew what had happened when he landed at Katmai National Park to collect the duo just 24 hours after last speaking to Timothy. Instead of finding the pair waiting on the shore, there was an eerie silence and the 'meanest looking bear' sitting atop of a pile of human remains, feeding from a human ribcage.
Tim and Aime's tents were found collapsed and torn with their evening snack lying opened and untouched. Their shoes were lay neatly by the door. Outside one tent lay a 3ft-high mound of grass, mud, twigs and remains, with ranger Joe Ellis spotting fingers and an arm protruding from the grotesque pile.
Nearby they found what was left of Tim's mauled head connected to a small piece of spine. His right arm was also found, his wrist watch still attached.
But it was the video camera in Tim's tent that would provide the full terrifying picture of what really happened. Tim recorded all his bear interactions and the ferocious attack was no exception. But in their panic, either he or Amie didn't have time to remove the lens, resulting in six long minutes of blood-curdling audio.
It starts with a frightened Amie asking if the bear is still out there before Tim screams: "Get out here! I'm getting killed out here!". The tent zipper is heard going as Amie rushes out into the storm and shouts for her boyfriend to 'play dead'.
Her screams and shouts appear to work and the bear lets Tim out of its grip, but as soon as she heads to help, it returns, apparently clamping its jaws around his head once more and pulling him towards the undergrowth. Frantic, Tim screams for Amy to 'hit the bear' and she is heard telling him to ‘'fight back' before attacking it with a frying pan.
Throughout the bear is sinisterly silent, with Tim's shouts giving way to moans before Amy panics and lets out a series of spine-chilling screams. There the tape runs out
When the bear was shot, investigators recovered four bin bags full of human remains from the stomach of the 1,000 pound 28-year-old male, who is said to have struggled to feed that season due to his age and broken teeth. According to Willy, Tim had previously tried to befriend the bear, but it 'never happened'.
The October 2003 attack was the subject of award-winning documentary The Grizzly Man by Werner Herzog, which revealed how Amie was terrified of the bears and thought her boyfriend was 'hellbent on destruction'. She'd told Tim the trip would be her last and had a new job waiting for her back in California.
As for the tape, he warned that people should 'never listen to this' and it is believed to have been placed under lock and key with one of his friends.
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