Black bear found shot dead in yard of Adirondack home

PHOTOGRAPHER: The Associated Press

State environmental conservation officers are investigating the fatal shooting of a black bear whose carcass was found in a backyard at an Adirondack home.

Alethea Vespa tells local media outlets that she came home from work Tuesday afternoon and found the bear lying on the lawn behind her mobile home off Route 73 in Lake Placid. She called state police, who alerted the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

DEC wildlife officers removed the carcass from her property that night. They said the bear died from a gunshot wound to the neck. Early bear hunting season in the state’s Northern Zone is under way.

Neighbors in the trailer park say they heard a gunshot late Monday night that apparently came from a nearby hill.

DEC officials say the bullet that killed the animal had been removed to use as evidence.