Less than a year ago in late August 2010, owner of exotic-animals Sam Mazzola gained nationwide notoriety after one of his bears mauled a woman--a caretaker who died in what was ruled a workplace accident. Now the Ohio owner himself has died after choking to death--on a sex toy, the man found dressed in bondage gear.
24 years old at the time, Ohio resident Brent Kandra was mauled by one of Mazzola's bears after the young girl opened the bear’s enclosure for what was supposed to be a routine feeding. Instead the bear attacked and was later euthanized -- killed itself over the killing.
49-year-old Sam Mazzola's himself has now been discovered dead in his Columbia Station home in Ohio, found lying face down on a water bed. The bear owner was found bound to the bed with handcuffs, chains and padlocks that apparently kept him from escaping a final fate. Cops found a sex toy in his throat, apparently stuffed into his mouth, which in turn obstructed the exotic animal owner's breathing.
Mazzola's regionally famous due to his collection and ownership of wild animals that are kept and exhibited at his home property located outside of Cleveland in Ohio.
Sam Mazzola was found wearing a leather mask with the eyes and mouth zipped shut and a two-piece metal sphere over his head. The coroner says Mazzola died from an "accident during sexual role play," not murder or suicide. Cause of death: a sex toy that triggered asphyxia, the foreign body blocking the man's air passage.
Apparently the bondage scenario was not that far removed from the norm: A teenage co-worker discovered Mazzola’s dead body -- reporting to police that someone else had been at the bear owner's home, to help with the bondage, then leaving before the animal owner died.