We don't have bears, but we do have raccoons. My biology pal tells me raccoons and bears are cousins, and that both species are very smart. Once every year or two, a raccoon comes along that is athletic enough to get into my wild game feeders or calf feeders. When that happens, I have to get the live traps out and catch it. If not, it will come back night after night. All this rambling gets me to the point that, THE BEAR WILL BE BACK.
I am from West Texas, and we speak slow with a horrible accent; therefore, I use the sophisticated term "raccoon." If I said raccoon to one of my neighbors he might not know what I meant. In our vernacular the animal is a "coon."
On another forum, one of the old experienced northeastern beekeepers stated that, "if you put up an electric fence to put some bait on it so that as soon as the bear came back he would get his first shock." The theory being that initially the fence would be in good working order, and at some later date the fence could be shorted out by some debris, snow or whatever.
I am truly sorry for your horrible loss.