In a tragic and horrifying incident, 19-year-old Olga Moskalyova lost her life after being mauled by a bear and its three cubs while on an outing with her stepfather, Igor Tsyganenkov, in a remote area of Siberia. The pair had gone to a river near the village of Termalniy to retrieve a fishing rod, but the outing quickly turned deadly. The attack began when a bear overpowered Igor, breaking his neck and killing him instantly. Olga witnessed the attack and attempted to flee, but the mother bear caught up with her and began the brutal assault.
Olga managed to call her mother, Tatiana, during the attack, pleading for help in a series of three heartbreaking phone calls. In the first call, Olga cried out, “Mom, the bear is eating me! Mom, it’s such agony. Mom, help!” Tatiana, initially thinking it was a cruel joke, soon realized the horror of the situation as she heard the sounds of the bear growling and chewing in the background. Despite the unimaginable fear, Olga continued to update her mother on her worsening condition.
In the second call, Olga informed her mother that the bear had returned with its cubs, saying, “Mum, the bears are back. She came back and brought her three babies. They’re… eating me.” The final call came nearly an hour later, with Olga telling her mother, “Mum, it’s not hurting any more. I don’t feel the pain. Forgive me for everything, I love you so much.” Despite Tatiana’s desperate pleas to authorities and villagers to rush to the scene, it was too late to save her daughter.
In the wake of her daughter’s death, Tatiana remembered Olga as a cheerful, friendly, and warm person who had recently graduated from music school and earned her driver’s license just days before the attack. The community was left in shock, and hunters were later dispatched to track down the bears responsible for the killings. Olga’s tragic death remains a heartbreaking reminder of the dangers that can arise in the wild.
