Grizzly bear kills father of 4 near Yellowstone National Park
A photo from GoFundMe shows the Clouatre family.
A Montana father of four on a hike was killed by a grizzly bear near Yellowstone National Park, according to authorities.
Search and rescue crews discovered the body of 40-year-old Craig Clouatre on Friday morning, two days after he left for a hike with a friend and split up, Park County Sheriff Brad Bichler announced.
"It appears he had an encounter with a grizzly and unfortunately did not survive," Bichler wrote. Please keep his family and all those involved in your thoughts and prayers.
Respectfully,
Rescue teams meet before a search for Craig Clouatre.
Clouatre was last seen Wednesday morning when he went hiking with a friend and the pair went separate ways, the sheriff’s office said.
The search for Clouatre took place largely in the Absaroka Mountains’ Six Mile Creek area. It consisted of teams on foot and horseback, and helicopter search crews, the sheriff’s office said.
Authorities were working to return Craig’s remains to his family on Friday.
On Saturday, Clouatre’s wife described how she loved Craig "with every single fiber of me."
"To say we are broken is an understatement," Jamie Clouatre wrote in a Facebook post. "The support in this community is incredible and I know it comes from Craig...who he was, a joy, a truly kind, good, GOOD man. There is no one else like him in the entire world."
A GoFundMe was created to help the family.
"There is really no good way to help, at this time the needs they have far outweigh the ability to provide support. But one way we can all rally together is to raise funds so that they don’t have to worry about anything financially," the page said.
Clouatre’s father told The Associated Press that the victim grew up in Massachusetts and moved more than two decades ago to Montana, where Clouatre met his future wife, Jamie, and decided to make a home.
"He was a joy to have as a son all the way around," David Clouatre said. "He was a good man, a good, hardworking family man."