Ursaside occurs when someone commits homicide and the victim is a bear. Researcher/Team Leader Chris turned up three photos that presented a murder mystery of sorts.
And the mystery proved a tough nut to crack.
Look at the photo above. Clearly ursaside most foul. Lt. Charles Parker, far from looking guilty, appears quite proud to have perpetrated the crime; probably mailed this photo home to his family.
But wait…
Pretty clearly Lt. Tim Timberlake did the foul deed. And he looks as proud as Lt. Parker. His family probably received this photo.
But no…
Staff Sergeant Jefferson, equally proud, killed the bear. His family got a photo too.
Ok. Here’s the mystery.
Somewhere in Yukon, three bears have come to an untimely end at the hands of intrepid soldier/hunters. In one photo, Lt. Parker poses proudly next to his trophy. In another, Lt. Timberlake stands next to his. And in a third, Sgt Jefferson stands next to his.
Problem.
If you look closely, you’ll see that all three photos feature the same scrawny bear.
Clearly there has been a bear homicide, but equally clearly there are too many proud suspects.
The archives offered no answers and the mystery remained a mystery for a very long time. But then we connected with Lt. Parker’s son; travelled to meet him personally so we could compare notes on highway history.
Inevitably the bear murder mystery came up.
It turns out that Lt. Parker took the bear’s skin home. Over the years his sons used it periodically to terrify their sisters.
We consider the presence of the bearskin in the post-highway home of Lt. Parker convincing evidence that Lt. Parker did for the bear.
Mystery solved.
Guided Bear Hunting in Yukon Today