LITTLE ROCK (Gray News) – Wildlife officials in Arkansas said the wrong bear was euthanized after a 60-year-old man was killed by one earlier this month.

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC) said the final analysis from the Veterinary Forensic Science Laboratory at the University of Florida confirmed the DNA collected from the black bear killed in Newton County on Oct. 4 did not match the bear involved in the death of Max Thomas of Springfield, Missouri.

Officials said Thomas was found Oct. 2 in Sam’s Throne Campground of the Ozark National Forest.

Thomas’ body was found by a Newton County Sheriff’s deputy during a welfare check at a campsite Thomas was staying at after his family requested it.

A few days later, wildlife officials euthanized a bear near the area after they de

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