Kenton Joel Carnegie Wolf Attack - Disappearance and Subsequent Discovery

Disappearance and Subsequent Discovery

Carnegie was on his fall co-op term in his third year of geological engineering at the University of Waterloo. He and a colleague were in the Athabasca basin performing airborne surveying work for Ottawa-based Sander Geophysics. A few days before his death, Carnegie wanted to go for a walk, but according to official statements made to RCMP by Svarckopf, Svarckopf and Van Galder told him of their encounter a few days prior and claimed to have "implored" him not to go. The Carnegie family, however, questions this claim, maintaining that permission was given by Chris Van Galder.

“I will tell you that our family still does not know how much information Kenton was given about the previous weeks wolf attack. Kenton asked and received approval from his supervisor (Chris) to go for that last walk alone. Kenton was not a risk taker, had plans for his future and never would have taken that walk if he realized any potential danger.” Kim Carnegie, 2008

Despite the alleged warnings, on 8 November at roughly 15:30, Carnegie went for a walk alone, stating that he would return by 17:00. At 19:00, he had not returned, and Van Galder and Svarckopf called Mark Eikel, part owner of the Points North camp to assist them in their search. After scouring the camp, the trio noticed Carnegie's tracks leading outside the camp and followed them to the lake shore. The men noticed wolf tracks on the shore and returned to the camp to get a rifle before continuing their search. Carnegie's body was found soon after by Eikel outside the campgrounds, 35 miles northwest of Wollaston Lake. Using a flashlight, Eikel viewed the body from about 10 m (32 ft). He made no attempt to determine if Carnegie was alive or how he had been injured. Together with Svarckopf and Van Galder, who did not see the body, he retreated to Points North to notify the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in Wollaston Lake of their discovery, informing police that Carnegie had been killed by wolves. The message that a person had been killed by wolves at Points North Camp was then forwarded to RCMP Constable Noey and local Coroner Rosalie Tsannie-Burseth. Meanwhile, Eikel and Points North employee Bob Burseth (Rosalie Tsannie-Burseth's husband) returned to the site about 40 minutes later to find the mutilated body and confirm that Carnegie was dead. Upon arriving at the scene three hours later, RCMP constable Noey saw from a distance of 30–40 metres the reflection of two sets of eyes, which he assumed were wolves because of wolf tracks seen earlier and because he had been told he was retrieving the body of a person killed by wolves. Notably, however, no wolves were ever observed at the scene of the accident as confirmed by Noey in the following quotes.

"And I was the first guy…I was the first man going into the scene. We’re all single file walking and…and being there’s still wolves in there—we…we thought there’s still wolves in the area—so I had my flashlight and my uh, my shotgun and I was panning the uh—like it’s…it’s pitch black. You can’t see nothing. It’s…it’s like, you’re in the north, there’s no…there’s no lights of, artificial light of any kind. So I had my flashlight panning back and forth. And there’s a lake on one uh, one side there’s a narrow trail and then to the other side there’s a muskeg. So I was walking along the trail and I was panning back and forth and when I panned back toward the muskeg you can see two sets of eyes looking at you. That was about maybe 20, no about 30, between 30 and 50 metres away we figure. I’m estimating and then from there the only thing I could do was just discharge my rifle in the air or my shotgun in the air just to scare the uh, animals away. I couldn’t tell what it was, but we assumed it was wolves by what the tracks we’ve seen earlier." National Geographic transcribed tape interview 5506 with Constable Alphonse Noey

“Well, I didn’t never actually seen the wolves, but we were assuming it was wolves with the…with the tracks we seen. Uh, it was kind of uh, I would say scary ‘cause you can hear them and you can hear them uh, maybe—I don’t know how far away—but you can hear them in the bush running around.” National Geographic transcribed tape interview 5506 with Constable Alphonse Noey

Many months after the accident, Coroner Tsannie-Burseth reported that during the recovery of the body, wolf howls were frequently heard in the vicinity. Her husband, Bob Burseth, who was also present, felt confident that they were within 400 metres of the kill site. However, in the official police statements recorded at the time of the accident, none of the witnesses, Coroner Tsannie-Burseth, or Constable Noey remembered hearing wolves vocalizing in any manner. Noey thought he might have heard wolves moving in the bushes but was not sure. Tsannie-Burseth stated that she could "feel" the presence of wolves but had heard nothing. To dissuade the animals from approaching, the search party built a fire and periodically fired shots into the air during the body recovery.

Rosalie Tsannie-Burseth, the province’s local coroner who had arranged the removal of Carnegie's body, gave a hypothetical reconstruction of what happened. Her reconstruction was based on tracks of people and animals she observed near the site of the attack the day after the event occurred. She speculated that Carnegie had walked from the camp and by the time he was a kilometre away near a frozen lake, a wolf began following his tracks. Boot prints in the snow showed that Carnegie quickened his pace, as two more wolves approached him from the sides. The first apparent struggle occurred 2.2 metres (7 ft) from where the chase began. Four more scuffle sites were found leading to where his body was discovered. Tsannie-Burseth believed that Carnegie probably fought hard before finally succumbing.