It could take weeks or longer before autopsy results indicate whether a man was killed by a bear at Great Smoky Mountains National Park/Tennessee Wildlife Resources

It could be weeks or longer before medical examiners are expected to report whether a backpacker at Great Smoky Mountains National Park was killed by a bear found scavenging his remains or whether he died of another cause.

Patrick Madura, a 43-year-old Elgin, Illinois, man, was on a multi-day backpack in the park that straddles the Tennessee-North Carolina border and had reserved backcountry campsite 82 for the night of September 8, park officials said. Three days later, backpackers coming down the trail spotted his unoccupied tent, and then noticed a black bear scavenging his remains.

The hikers quickly left to obtain cell coverage and report the incident to the authorities. Law enforcement rangers and wildlife officers reached the campsite shortly after midnight last Saturday, confirmed the report of a deceased adult human male, and killed a bear seen scavenging on the remains.

An autopsy on Madura was scheduled for September 15, though the results could take several weeks to months for investigators to obtain, park staff said Thursday.

The bear was an adult boar weighting 240 pounds and in good health with no abnormalities, park biologists said.

Two years ago, in September 2018, a Tennessee man's body was found in the park about 2 miles north of Cades Cove and about a half-mile from the Rich Mountain Road. When searchers found his body, which had signs of being fed on by predators, they also encountered a black bear that was acting aggressively towards them.

Though rangers weren't sure whether the bear found near William Lee Hill, Jr.'s body might have attacked and killed him, they killed it out of a measure of caution. Hill had gone into the park to hunt for ginseng, a high-priced root used by some as a traditional home medicine. Prices can go as high as $800 a pound for ginseng. While the root can be collected outside the park, it is illegal to do so inside the boundaries.

Several months later, in February 2019, results of a necropsy performed on the bear indicated that it had not been in a weakened condition and desperate for food. Its teeth were in good shape, and its belly was "full" of acorn meat," noted the pathologist, who made no mention of human remains in the stomach.

The medical examiner concluded that Hill had died of accidental methamphetamine intoxication.

Great Smoky is home to an estimated 1,500 bears. Very few bears exhibit aggressive behavior towards humans. Wildlife biologists and park rangers work hard to prevent bears from becoming food-conditioned or habituated to high-use areas. Out of an abundance of caution for the park's 11 million park visitors, park staff implement aversive-conditioning techniques and, on rare occasions, euthanize individual bears that pose a threat to visitor safety.