I agree with the injuries being so horrific as not able to be inflicted by a human hand, but if that is so, then neither fighting, nor being beaten up by mansi, military, gulag escapees or someone mad at Lyuda could have managed it. What kind of an animal could inflict this type of power by kicking or hitting?
It is well known that people taking meth have super human strength taking 3 or 4 policemen to subdue them. If a person was not able to inflict this type of powerful force, what do we have left? A herd of elk or reindeer trampling over the group if the human smell spooked them. The tent was low, so jumping elk onto the bodies of the hikers might be a possibility.
Otherwise, there is a suggestion of a snow mobile. They were invented in 1909 in Russia and I would suspect only the military had access to them?
If the military did beat and leave the hikers for dead, what motive could there be? And why has someone not spoken about this in the last 50 years?
I will leave it there at this point. Best regards, Jarrfana