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CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) - The mountaintop swimming hole near where a black bear killed a 6-year-old girl and injured her mother and 2-year-old half brother was a favorite spot for the outdoors-loving family, relatives said Monday.
Relatives of Elora Petrasek met with reporters for the first time since she was killed near the pool at the base of a waterfall on a 1,800-foot mountain in the Cherokee National Forest of southeast Tennessee.
''We are very familiar with this area, very familiar with being out in nature,'' her father, Robert Petrasek, 37, of Sarasota, Fla., said after reading a statement thanking rescuers and doctors. The family previously lived in southeast Tennessee, he said.
The girl, of Clyde, Ohio, was attacked Thursday afternoon. The bear also bit 2-year-old Luke Cenkus, puncturing his skull, and went after the children's mother, Susan Cenkus, 45, who tried to fend off the animal with rocks and sticks.
The mother remained in critical condition Monday at Erlanger Medical Center in Chattanooga, but she was ''awake and doing well'' and ''neurologically intact,'' Dr. Vicente Mejia said in a statement.
Her son was listed in fair condition and is expected to receive more antibiotics before being released, as well as a psychological evaluation for any emotional trauma.
Elora's half brother, Christopher Dennison, 23, said the two children and their mother had come to Tennessee to see him perform in a musical program at nearby Lee University, where he is a student. He said his mother ''would have gladly given her life'' for the children.
''That was our favorite place to go for recreation, and so we never had any fear of being there,'' Dennison said.
Wildlife officers caught and euthanized a black bear on Saturday that they believed attacked the family. Preliminary tests at the University of Tennessee's College of Veterinary Medicine in Knoxville to try to determine why the bear might have attacked were not conclusive.
''We are leaning toward a predatory attack at this time, until we can find another reason,'' said Dan Hicks, a spokesman for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.
A necropsy was planned after tests showed the animal was not rabid.
Dennison said the family was eager to learn if the bear was the one that killed Elora.
''My hopes are it is the bear,'' he said. ''We don't hold any animosity toward the animal.''
Hicks said the remote forest Chilhowee Recreation Area remained closed Monday.
''We have officers in those areas. We are still trapping. We have to assume that we might not have the bear we want,'' Hicks said. ''Until we can positively identify that bear, we are going to assume we don't have it.''
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