Authorities believe that the brown bear that attacked and killed 44-year-old Eagle River resident Michael Soltis on Monday is the same bear that attacked a searcher on Wednesday morning while that man, was out with search parties attempting to locate missing hiker last seen on Monday.

The injured searcher, Paul Vasquez, was one of three searchers walking down the trail attempting to locate Soltis when the group heard a noise to the left of them and a brown bear charged out of the woods directly at the trio. Vasquez who was second in the group on the trail jumped in front of the person ahead of him as the bear was charging and he was subsequently attacked. Vasquez suffered severe bites to his leg.

A passing motorist was flagged down and Vasquez was transported to the hospital for treatment of his injuries.

The Bear’s behavior was unusual, and it would be determined that he was protecting something, which in this case with the remains of Soltis. The remains would be located a short distance away later on Wednesday.[xyz-ihs snippet=”Adversal-468×60″]

On Thursday state biologists continued to search for the marauding bear and had deployed their traps to capture the large bruin. Thus far they had been unsuccessful. Once caught, the bear will be dispatched and its DNA matched with the DNA found that the attack scene.

If the traps do not accomplish the bear, more direct methods will be used.

Monday’s fatal attack was the third to occur in the past two years.

  attack, eagle river, fatality, james vasquez, mauling, michael soltis, search