Officer questions obit claim of bear attack

The Daily Inter Lake

The family of a man who was found dead in 2004 east of Bigfork recently published an obituary saying he died after being attacked by a bear.

Local officials, though, don't know whether that's true.

The body of Todd William Schwartz, 39, of Lebanon, Tenn., was found in April 2005 on Bear Creek Road.

A skull was found near a sleeping bag.

A wallet containing Schwartz's driver's license was near a tent and camping gear.

No one had reported Schwartz missing.

The Flathead County Sheriff's Office asked for help from the FBI in identifying Schwartz's remains. The agency recently confirmed that the remains were his.

According to an obituary published last weekend in an Anchorage, Alaska, newspaper, Schwartz "died Oct. 23, 2003, at a campsite in Kalispell, Mont., after being attacked by a bear."

"It's possible," said Flathead County Undersheriff Mike Meehan, but no evidence of a bear attack exists.

"We think some type of animal did scatter his remains," Meehan said. "It was just speculation."

The cause of Schwartz's death still is listed as unknown.

And despite the information in the obituary, Meehan said it is impossible to say when Schwartz died.