But after a few hours of unsuccessful searching for the bear, officials gave up around 4 p.m. because it was Father's Day weekend and left the area without warning anyone, Young said.

Ives and his family went up there that evening, passing by the main entry gate and DWR officers on the road who simply waved to them. There was never a mention of a bear encounter.

Ives was dragged out of the tent sometime before midnight, and his family initially thought he had been abducted because the slash in the tent didn't look like a claw mark. They called 911 and frantically searched in the darkness.

Rebecca Ives said the first thing responding officers did was mark off the area.

"They got out yellow tape and taped off the entire camp site and took us out of it. Why wasn't that done (before)?" she asked. "We would have known something there was up if there was just yellow tape, a piece of plastic. And I would still have my son."

The State's Division of Wildlife Resources knows about the lawsuit but hadn't seen it as of Friday afternoon, so they couldn't comment, said Dean Mitchell, conservation outreach section chief for the DWR.

But that doesn't mean their office hasn't often reflected over the events of last June — the first-ever human death from a bear in Utah.

"The Division of Wildlife Resources continues to send our condolences to the family of Samuel Ives," Mitchell said. "This was a very, very tragic event."

There are around 4,000 to 5,000 black bears in Utah, Mitchell said, and last year sightings were especially high because a new batch of young cubs were out looking for their own territory. This summer's sightings should be fewer, but Mitchell added they still encourage caution and education for all back-country enthusiasts.

Loyal Clark, spokeswoman for the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forests, said their federal office hasn't received the lawsuit and also couldn't comment.

"We want it to be a completely fair and unbiased process and don't want to compromise that in any way," she said.

In the meantime, Rebecca Ives, Mulvey and Francis are still struggling to cope. Ives' 7-year-old brother Jack didn't attend the news conference Friday, but his parents have filed the suit on his behalf as well, alleging that he has lost the love, affection, support and companionship of his brother and that he has suffered mental anguish from having witnessed the event.

Tim Mulvey's voice cracked as he talked about their young son, left without an older brother.

"(Jack's) hero isn't here anymore," he said.

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E-mail: sisraelsen@desnews.com