4 women identified who rescued their friend from the mouth of a puma during a mountain bike tour

SNOQUALMIE, Wash. – Four women who saved the life of a friend after she was attacked and seriously injured by a cougar while mountain biking will be awarded the Carnegie Medal for Heroism.

Annie Bilotta, Aune Tietz and Erica Wolf of Seattle and Tisch Schmidt-Williams of North Bend were biking on a hiking trail near Fall City on February 17, 2024, when a cougar attacked 60-year-old Keri Bergere.

They freed their friend, whose jaw was stuck in the cat’s mouth, and held the animal while they waited for help. The four women are receiving national awards for this heroic act.

Bilotta, Schmidt-Williams, Tietz and Wolfe will receive the award along with 14 other people.

The Carnegie Hero Fund Commissions honor people in the United States and Canada who, “in exceptionally heroic acts,” risk their own safety by rescuing or attempting to rescue others.

In March, Bilotta, Williams and Bergere told the story of that horrific day in an interview with KING 5. The group of five women had completed 30 kilometers of their journey and were on the Tokul Creek Trail near Snoqualmie when the attack occurred.

Two cougars came running out of the bushes and one “decided to attack Keri,” Bilotta said, dragging Bergere off her bike.

“From the moment we saw the cougars to the moment Keri fell off her bike, it was about three seconds,” Bilotta said. “We had no chance to fight them, scare them away or anything.”

“All I remember is being attacked from this side and landing on the ground across the street and hearing all the women pulling themselves together and fighting for my life,” Bergere said.

The women immediately intervened to save their friend, essentially engaging in “hand-to-hand combat,” according to Bilotta, using rocks and sticks as the cougar bit Bergere’s jaw.

“I knew every second what was going on. And I was doing my own thing, poking around in it, trying to concentrate, getting my eyes out and my hand in his nose and mouth,” Bergere said.

After 15 minutes, Bergere escaped and the group held the cougar on a bicycle until help arrived. An officer from the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife shot the young cougar.

Bergere said she wouldn’t be alive without her friends.

“I know for a fact that if they didn’t come back, I would be dead. I would just be gone. That cougar got me and I have no doubt about it,” Bergere said.

She spent five days at Harborview Medical Center after the attack. In an update to her online fundraiser in April, she listed a series of injuries, including scratches and bites in her right shoulder, a reconstructed left ear and injuries to her hands and face.

“The scars will be part of my future story. I am alive and can live with a few scars,” Bergere wrote.