Darsh Patel, a 22‑year‑old Rutgers student, was with four friends hiking in the Apshawa Preserve in West Milford when a roughly 300‑pound black bear began following them and they stopped to take pictures from about 100 feet away. When the bear kept approaching, the group tried to walk away, then scattered and ran; the bear pursued Patel, and he was later found deceased at the base of a ravine with clear signs of a bear attack while the same bear was still circling his body. Police recovered his