The lion that killed a 24-year-old intern at a Fresno County wild cat park reportedly escaped from another area, before killing Dianna Hanson on Wednesday, The Los Angeles Times reports.

Fresno County Coroner David Hadden told the LA Times that Hanson had been cleaning an enclosure of the park, but was found dead after the lion escaped from a smaller enclosure.  

"The woman's body was found in a larger enclosure that the intern had been cleaning. The lion -- a 4-year-old male named Cous Cous -- had just been fed in a smaller enclosure and somehow "escaped," Hadden told the LA Times.

The LA Times reported that a close look at the enclosure showed that the den where the lion was being fed was separated from the larger enclosure by a heavy gate that could only be lifted up.

"She was living her dream," Paul Hanson, the older brother of Dianna Hanson said. "She was living her destiny as far as being able to work with those animals. That was what she wanted in life."

Family members said she loved big cats and wanted to be a "pet store lady" as a child.

The park will be closed for the length of the investigation.

During the attack, officials said, another volunteer tried to lure the lion away from Hanson, but it was to no avail. Sheriff's deputies arrived and fatally shot the animal. Hanson was fatally wounded by the time rescuers could reach the scene.

"An autopsy suggested that Hanson died quickly from a fractured neck and some suffocation," Hadden said. "The neck injury appeared to come from a swipe from the lion's paw. The body had "numerous claw marks and bite damage elsewhere, likely inflicted after the initial swipe," Hadden said.