West Milford police seeking two hikers who encountered group before fatal bear attack
SEPTEMBER 23, 2014, 1:03 PM LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2014, 10:00 PM
BY JEFF GREEN AND MINJAE PARK
STAFF WRITERS
THE RECORD
Police on Tuesday appealed to the public for help in identifying two hikers who were among the last people to have seen Darsh Patel alive on Sunday before he was mauled to death by a black bear in a West Milford nature preserve.As the authorities searched for clues about the 22-year-old Patel’s death, the first fatality by a bear in New Jersey in 150 years, a portrait of the Rutgers student began to emerge. Friends remembered him as a generous person as they prepared for his funeral, which a friend said is scheduled for today.