Folk singer's gruesome death while hiking after being attacked and eaten by coyotes
At the age of 19, Taylor Mitchell became the first ever adult to lose their life to a fatal coyote attack whilst on a popular hiking trail in Canada, and experts have been trying to work out how the tragedy happened ever since.
With hopes of becoming a professional folk singer, Taylor released her debut album, For Your Consideration, which would be the last music she would ever create. After a jam-packed summer of performing, she decided to embark on a small tour of Eastern Canada, armed with her brand new car and driver's license.
But, when she took to the road, the teenager and her loved ones had no idea she would never be coming home. Ready for an adventure, the singer arrived at the Skyline Trail, Cape Breton Highlands National Park's most popular walk which sees up to 25,000 visitors year in and year out.
Taylor was one of the extremely unlucky ones because despite being dressed appropriately with her backpack and carrying no food, she was struck down in broad daylight by a pack of wild coyotes. She was found on the Nova Scotia trail, believed to be a short time after the attack, but it was, tragically, already too late.
Four fellow hikers,came across Mitchell during the attack and did all they could to scare the coyotes away while she lay critically wounded. Mysteriously, Taylor was seen both before and after the attack, but there were no witnesses to see the mauling itself.
After hearing screams in the distance, several hikers were faced with Taylor's brutal reality. Just moment after hearing her desperate cries they walked along the access road and started to find her personal items. Keys and a small knife were found on the floor before they came across pieces of torn-up and bloody clothing, along with large amounts of blood on the ground, all belonging to the 19-year-old girl.
Soon after, at 3:25pm, the strangers discovered Taylor's body lying nearby, with a coyote standing over her. She was still conscious and able to speak with the group that rescued her while they waited for medical attention.
Paramedics were able to take her to the Sacred Heart Community Health Centre in Chéticamp, where she remained in critical condition and was soon airlifted to the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre. Devastatingly, despite the relentless efforts carried out by medical teams, Taylor passed away due to blood loss later on that evening, on October 27, 2009.
Her tragic death left experts confused as to what led the coyotes to attack her, having seen no reports or problems with the animals in the park prior to the event. They decided to run some tests to understand the influence of such a horror and found that the coyotes were in fact eastern coyotes that carry a wolf gene, but to what extent this affected the death of Taylor Mitchell is unknown.
An obituary was made to remember and honour the life of Taylor, set up by her loving sister Emily Mitchell. The website states: "Wise beyond her years and an environmentalist at a very early age, Taylor understood the unbreakable connection between animal and human life and was involved with various causes for habitat conservation.
"Taylor, whose musical star was on the rise, had a break during her first Maritimes tour and was doing what she loved—spending time in nature's fold—when the attack occurred."
Since that day in 2009, no other human adult has faced a fatal attack by coyotes.
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