What Killed the Bear Lady?

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The official autopsy is filed as incomplete, the medical examiner refuses to comment, and local theories abound as to how she died and how she lived. Though the people of Tyrrell County are one of the state’s smallest, poorest populations, they have big, rich imaginations: She had been a high-end prostitute working for the Washington, D.C., elite. Or the queenpin of a Miami drug operation. Maybe someone wanted her dead. Or maybe she faked her death and fled.

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Everyone—friends, the sheriff, wildlife officers—told her to stop. Shiron Pledger, one of Kay’s closest friends, says, “I told her all the time, if something happened to her and they got hungry enough, they would eat her. She’d say, ‘Those bears aren’t gonna hurt me. They love me.’ ” In Kay’s home videos from the time, the bears do seem to love her, interacting like 500-pound puppies. They try to climb into her trailer, until she reprimands them—“Back!”—and they duck their heads, tuck their ears, and slink away. In one scene, she calls Highway 64 over and holds up her hand, and he goes from all fours to his hind legs, towering over her in obedience. In another, she hands him an apple pie, which he sniffs and tosses aside, grunting for the pastry in her other hand. “Picky!” she says.

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