Lynn lau
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Jun 06/01) - Kyle Harry's friends want to remember him as a hero.
The 18-year-old victim of Saturday's fatal bear mauling wanted to be a social worker and help people with drug and alcohol addiction. Now, Harry's family and friends are mourning the death of a caring person who loved to joke around, listen to AC/DC and play hacky sack.Harry was a Grade 11 student at Sir John Franklin high school.
| Funeral services for Kyle Harry will be held at Holy Trinity Anglican Church, 4909-52 St., Thursday, June 7, at 1:30 p.m. |
The attack occurred around noon Saturday, when Harry and a 14-year-old girl were alone at the site. Their friends had just gone to town in their only vehicle to pick up supplies.
The girl escaped unharmed but Harry was caught and mauled to death.
"He sacrificed his life for hers," said Josh Holland, 18.
Harry liked to help people. He had one sister, Tanya, 16, a student at Sir John. Originally from Aklavik, he moved to Yellowknife with his family at the age of seven.
"He was a good guy who had everything going for him," said cousin, and long-time friend, Allen Kossatz, 17. "He had a big heart and no enemies."
Grant Hoyles, 17, remembers Harry as his best friend since Grade 6.
"He was always around when you needed to talk. He meant a heck of a lot to everyone. I keep expecting to see him sitting at coffee. I keep expecting him to walk by."
Holland remembers Harry as an ardent AC/DC fan who would print pages and pages of lyrics off the Internet and grill his buddies on AC/DC trivia.
"We used to gather and play AC/DC and he loved to pretend he was the lead singer," said Holland.
"He knew all the words. Everyone else would pick up a vacuum cleaner part or whatever and join in and sing. He probably knew more about the band than they did."
Harry, Kossatz, Hoyles, Holland and a fifth friend, Jeff Tonge, 17, formed a tight knit group. They'd all known each other for years and were always together.
They had found the campsite near Prosperous Lake about three years ago and been returning countless times, whenever anyone could get a car.
This weekend, Hoyles borrowed his mom's car and along with two girls, the group went camping Friday night. The site, about 23 kilometres east of Yellowknife, seemed like a perfect place for camping. A rocky outcrop provided shelter from the wind, a ridge nearby provided good views, and forest surrounded the small clearing.
It was the group's favourite place to camp, and the first time they had visited it this year.
"Friday was a great night," said Holland. "We had a great time and everything seemed to be going right."
They had never had problems with bears at that site, and there were no bear tracks or signs of a bear Friday or Saturday morning, Holland said. Although the group would usually brought along a firearm, this time, they did not.
Saturday around 11:30 a.m. most of the group decided to return to Yellowknife to pick up more supplies, drop one friend off, and have a shower. Harry and the 14-year-old girl stayed behind.
Holland said the supply run was only supposed to take an hour or two but car problems delayed them in Yellowknife. "We had to wait awhile to get the vehicle running," he said.
When they returned to the site around 5 p.m., there were emergency vehicles everywhere and police were stopping traffic to warn them of a wounded bear on the loose.
It wasn't until they told police they were the campers with Harry that they learned of the attack.
Hoyles wondered aloud how things might have been different had the group left a little later.
"There's no way he could have been helped ... unless we were out there. If we had left 15 minutes later ... we could have scared (the bear) away."
