{"id":46419,"date":"2021-06-05T01:19:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-05T01:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/no-other-wildlife-besides-bears-suspected-in-womans-death-report-says\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T09:31:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:31:21","slug":"no-other-wildlife-besides-bears-suspected-in-womans-death-report-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/no-other-wildlife-besides-bears-suspected-in-womans-death-report-says\/","title":{"rendered":"No other wildlife besides bears suspected in woman\u2019s death, report says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Colorado
Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers and La Plata County Sheriff\u2019s deputies investigate the scene of what CPW believes was a fatal bear attack of U.S. Highway 550 on Saturday morning. A 39-year-old woman was found dead Friday night near Trimble north of Durango.<\/span>Courtesy of Colorado Parks and Wildlife<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A Colorado Parks and Wildlife incident report confirmed that bears were the only animals involved in a fatal attack on a 39-year-old Durango woman April 30.<\/p>\n

Laney Malavolta was found dead in a wooded area north of Durango and near Trimble Lane (County Road 252). The subsequent investigation concluded that a sow and two cubs were responsible for her death, based on information gathered from the initial CPW investigation and autopsy and necropsy results.<\/p>\n

In the weeks after Malavolta\u2019s death, rumors grew in La Plata County that a mountain lion might have been involved in the attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are aware there are some folks that might think that,\u201d said Travis Duncan, CPW spokesman.<\/p>\n

But investigators found no evidence that a mountain lion was in the area, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think why that rumor might be popping up is because the body was cached,\u201d or partially buried in debris, Duncan said.<\/p>\n

Mountain lions frequently cast plant life and dirt over prey to hide it, then return later. Black bears show the same behavior, although it is not as common as with mountain lions.<\/p>\n

The cause of death was determined to be a perforated left carotid artery caused by a bear, based on Malavolta\u2019s injuries and evidence at the scene. Her injuries were not consistent with typical mountain lion attack, Duncan said.<\/p>\n

CPW wildlife officers looked for signs of wildlife immediately after recovering Malavolta. They scanned for tracks and scat, and they used hounds to track any wildlife in the area, according to the incident report.<\/p>\n

The hounds quickly found the three bears, then continued surveying the area. No signs of other predators, including mountain lions, were found.<\/p>\n

The wildlife officer set up multiple game cameras and left them up for more than 24 hours after the attack. No lions returned to the area, Duncan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no evidence of a mountain lion being involved in the attack,\u201d said Chris Burke, spokesman for La Plata County Sheriff\u2019s Office. \u201cThere are mountain lions in the area, one in particular that the DOW is aware of and are trying to capture, but it wasn\u2019t in the same vicinity of the attack.\u201d<\/p>\n

DNA evidence during the examination of the bears and an injury analysis confirmed the bears were involved. The injuries were not consistent with a mountain lion attack, Duncan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there were lions in the area, we\u2019re pretty confident that the dogs would\u2019ve found some sign of them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

CPW emphasized the importance of being bear-aware.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really don\u2019t know what happened. It\u2019s just a tragic accident,\u201d Duncan said.<\/p>\n

Bear attacks are considered extremely rare in Colorado. There were about 85 recorded attacks on humans between 1960 and 2020. Three of those were fatal. Malavolta\u2019s death is the fourth fatal attack in the same time range, according to CPW records.<\/p>\n

An experienced and knowledgeable operator in the backcountry, Malavolta\u2019s \u201cgreatest joy\u201d was to be outdoors, according to a statement from Malavolta\u2019s family.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile Laney\u2019s physical presence was suddenly taken from this earth, all that know and love her can take comfort; Laney\u2019s soul will live forever in her favorite place, doing her favorite thing,\u201d the family\u2019s statement said. \u201cShe would not have wanted it any other way.\u201d<\/p>\n

For those who would like to learn more about wildlife awareness, CPW has a resource page on its website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

smullane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cameras help rule out mountain lion involvement<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46420,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1332,28,1194,29,1310,603],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-46419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-bears","tag-headlines","tag-la-plata-county-sheriffs-office","tag-newsletter","tag-safety-of-citizens","tag-wildlife"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46419"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86870,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46419\/revisions\/86870"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46419"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=46419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}