Such a tragedy. I've never heard of coyotes attacking someone before. Usually they're too afraid of humans to get anywhere close to them.

What a horrendous end

And I'm far from being a spring chicken, but I have heard of coyotes attaching humans, and we have a lot of them here. I hear them calling (howling) most nights

There timber wolves where we used to live .... a much much larger animal, and they too avoided humans

My family lived for a short while in Canmore, just outside of Banff National Park. It was a little like the opening to a 'Northern Exposure' episode. We'd see Timber wolves often in the morning walking through town, along with many more critters.
I learned while we were there from a neighbor that wolves are often blamed for what coyotes have done. Coyotes are rather brazen and will attack small pets and children if given an opportunity. Adults they are less likely to attack alone, but when there is more...not good.

We are used to coyotes in our neighborhood and they tend to avoid us. However, my husband and I were stalked by a pack of coyotes at dusk on a remote golf course in Arizona. We jumped in the golf cart and they ran along side us in the brush as we quickly made our way back to the clubhouse. It was scary, but we had no business being out there so late. The coyotes provided a natural pest control for the course by eating the rabbits, squirrels, and javelina.

WOW! very scary , thank you Lisa and Kelika, methinks I have taken their fear of humans for granted, especially as the young woman killed was not that far from here in New Brunswick

Sounds familiar. Remember this post?
Coyotes kill woman on hike in Canadian park
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091028/ap_on_re_ca/cn_canada_coyote_attack