TAYLOR MITCHELL

HALIFAX – Taylor Mitchell, a young musician, was killed by coyotes in a Canadian park.
Mitchell, just 19 years old, was a singer-songwriter from Toronto. On Tuesday, she decided to hike a popular trail in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park in Nova Scotia.
It will never be known what started the attack, but other hikers heard Mitchell’s screams and called emergency services.
Officers quickly arrived and shot one of the coyotes, however both animals managed to run off. Mitchell was found unconscious, bleeding heavily from a number of wounds.
She was airlifted to a Halifax hospital, but died Wednesday morning. Lisa Weitz, Mitchell’s manager, manager said that after speaking to the singer’s mother late on Tuesday night, “we thought she was stable, but she had lost too much blood.”
“Words can’t begin to express the sadness and tragedy of losing such a sweet, compassionate, vibrant, and phenomenally talented young woman,” Weitz wrote in an e-mail.
Mitchell had been nominated for a 2009 Canadian Folk Music Award in the Young Performer of the Year category.
Coyote attacks are extremely rare, and park officials have been quick to point out that it is unlikely the pair of coyotes will attack again.
The trail has since been blocked off while park rangers try to find the animals that killed Mitchell.