A 19-year-old woman’s mother endured the unimaginable agony of listening to her daughter’s fatal bear attack over the phone in Russia.
In 2011, Olga Moskalyova lost her life when she and her stepfather, Igor Tsyganenkov, ventured to a river in the village of Termalniy, near Petropavlovsk Kamchatskiy in eastern Siberia.
The duo had set out to retrieve a fishing rod Igor had previously left behind. Olga’s mother, Tatiana, received an unexpected call from her daughter during the outing.
On answering her phone, Tatiana heard her daughter’s distressing words: “Mom, the bear is eating me! Mom, it’s such agony. Mom, help!”
Initially, Tatiana thought Olga was playing a cruel joke until she heard the unmistakable sounds of ‘chewing’.
She recounted: “I heard the real horror and pain in Olga’s voice, and the sounds of a bear growling and chewing. I could have died then and there from shock.”
Unbeknownst to Tatiana, Igor had already been killed by the bear, which had overpowered him and broken his neck.
Olga witnessed the attack on her stepfather and tried to flee, but the mother bear caught up and grabbed her leg.
Managing to call her mother, Olga kept her on the phone through three separate calls as the attack continued.
During the second call, Olga said: “Mum, the bears are back. She came back and brought her three babies. They’re… eating me.”
The final call, nearly an hour after the first, indicated Olga was losing her fight for survival.
She said: “Mum, it’s not hurting anymore. I don’t feel the pain. Forgive me for everything, I love you so much.”
In a desperate attempt to save her daughter, Tatiana alerted the police and villagers, urging them to rush to the river. However, by the time Igor’s brother and the police arrived, Olga had already succumbed to her injuries.
Hunters were subsequently dispatched to locate the bears responsible for the tragic killings.
In the wake of the tragedy, Tatiana honored her daughter’s memory, saying: “My daughter was such fun. She was so cheerful, friendly, and warm.”
“She had graduated from music school, and just days before the bear attack she got her driving license.”