An overdue hunter in Alaska was found dead Wednesday after an apparent attack by at least one brown bear, state police said.

Alaska State Troopers were called shortly after 6 p.m. Tuesday after Tad Fujioka, 50, of Sitka, failed to return from a deer hunting trip, the law enforcement agency said.

A search was launched, and his remains were found at around 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, state troopers said in a daily report of incidents.

“Investigation revealed he was the likely victim of a fatal bear mauling,” they said in the report.

Fujioka had killed a deer at the location before he was attacked by at least one bear, said Tim DeSpain, a spokesman for the Alaska Department of Public Safety.

Investigators know a brown bear was involved because that’s the only type of bear in the area, DeSpain said.

“The area is remote and there are a lot of bears in that area,” he said.

State troopers and officials with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game searched for the bear or bears that might be responsible but did not find them, DeSpain said.

Sitka is a city and borough of about 8,400 people in the Alaska panhandle, southwest of Juneau.

Alaska has black bears, brown bears — which include grizzlies — and polar bears.

There are around 100,000 black bears and around 30,000 brown bears in Alaska, the state Department of Fish and Game says on its website. There are far fewer polar bears, which the state considers threatened, and they range far to the north of Sitka.

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTVF) – A Tennessee man is wanted for first degree murder after falsely making a 911 call impersonating his alleged victim.

Law Enforcement says the suspect, Nicholas Wayne Hamlett, is reported to have ties to Alaska – and his current whereabouts are unknown.

On Friday, Oct. 18, Monroe County Tennessee emergency services responded to a call from a man stating that he had fallen from a cliff while being chased by a bear. They located a deceased man carrying an identification card with the name Brandon Andrade; and determined that the victim did not own the identification and had not made the 911 call.

Law enforcement says that Hamlett was identified as having used the stolen identification of Andrade on multiple occasions, and is believed to have fled his residence after speaking with police.

Hamlett is considered dangerous and could be armed; if you see him, do not approach, but call 911 immediately.

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In the final week of Alaska’s closely contested U.S. House race, supporters of the two leading candidates are urging some Alaskans to consider a third option.

With incumbent Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola in a tight election against Republican candidate Nick Begich, her campaign has begun running ads favorable toward Alaskan Independence Party candidate John Wayne Howe. A pro-Peltola political action committee is also running online ads in support of Howe.

Howe, chair of the AIP, finished fifth in Alaska’s top-four primary election, but advanced to the general election after two higher-ranked Republicans withdrew.

The ads, listed on the disclosure website of Facebook’s parent company, Meta, are targeted principally at middle-aged Alaska men — a demographic that favors Begich, according to public opinion polls conducted during the campaign.

The strategy, as outlined in a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee document, is to get non-Peltola voters to pick Howe instead of Begich, then rank no one as their second choice in the ranked choice election.

That would sap potential votes from Begich, boosting Peltola’s chances.

“It is important that people who vote for John Wayne Howe rank him first and do not consider other choices,” the DCCC said in a website post dated Oct. 23.

One of the ads, from a pro-Peltola committee called Vote Alaska Before Party, was published starting Oct. 21, shortly before the DCCC post. The other three ads, run by Peltola’s campaign, were published starting this week. 

All three note that Begich was born in Florida and suggest that voters should vote for someone who was born in the state. Both Peltola and Howe were born in Alaska.

On the Republican side, the National Republican Congressional Committee said in an Oct. 9 post on its website that “liberal Democrats with a college degree under 35 in urban and suburban Anchorage and Juneau need to hear that Democrat Eric Hafner supports Medicare for All and Defunding ICE.”

Hafner, the fourth candidate in Alaska’s top-four general election, is running as a Democrat but is imprisoned in New York state and is likely ineligible to serve as Alaska’s lone member of the House if he were elected.

If a Democrat were to vote for Hafner as their first choice and decline to pick Peltola second, it would reduce Peltola’s odds of victory.

No ads with the NRCC’s suggested message are listed in the Meta ad library or in the political ad disclosure files of KTUU-TV, the state’s largest TV station.

Earlier this month, Begich noted on a podcast with former Republican U.S. Senate Kelly Tshibaka that Hafner supports Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee. Peltola has declined to endorse Harris to date.

Begich’s statement, coupled with the NRCC’s message, prompted a harsh message from the Alaska Democratic Party, whose director accused Begich and the NRCC of using “dirty tricks.”