Mother and daughter found dead near Bella Coola, B.C.; conservation officers suspect grizzly attack

A mother and her daughter who went for a walk near their home in Bella Coola, British Columbia, were found dead this week. Conservation officers say the evidence suggests a grizzly bear attack.

The victims are Jennifer "Jenny" Balcarras, 48, an art therapist, and her 20-year-old daughter, Selah Reed, according to their family. Officers have not announced a formal cause of death, and the coroner's office had not responded to a request for comment as of Wednesday, Nov. 4.

The timeline

Balcarras and Reed left on Saturday, Oct. 31, for what relatives describe as a short afternoon walk on the Snooka West Trail. The trail is about 8 km (5 miles) east of Bella Coola on the province's central coast, roughly a five-minute drive from the women's home.

When Balcarras missed a scheduled online meet-up that evening, her family grew worried. On Sunday, Nov. 1, relatives asked the RCMP to check on the pair. Balcarras's vehicle was found at the trailhead.

Search teams, including conservation officers, the RCMP and local search and rescue, found Balcarras's remains in the trail area on Monday afternoon, Nov. 2. Reed's remains were found Tuesday afternoon, Nov. 3.

"There was evidence to suggest a bear may have been involved," said Inspector Jeff Tyre of the B.C. Conservation Officer Service in a video update on social media.

The hunt for the bear or bears

Tyre said officers are working to locate and capture any bears involved. He has said it is not clear whether more than one animal was responsible, and that investigators are considering the possibility that there were several.

Traps are set. On Wednesday afternoon, Tyre said none of them had caught a bear overnight.

"We have a team of conservation officers here on the ground in Bella Coola working diligently on these efforts," Tyre said. "This is highly dangerous work, and we again want to stress the importance of the public staying away from the Snooka West Trail area at this time."

The service has also laid out what happens to any bear it catches. Captured animals will be assessed. If one is determined to have been involved, it "will be dispatched in accordance with provincial human-wildlife conflict response guidelines to protect public safety," the service said.

A family that knew the trail

Relatives reject any suggestion that the women were careless or unfamiliar with the area.

"They were not naive city folks," Matt Balcarras, Jennifer's brother, told The Vancouver Sun. "They were strong women living the life."

Another brother, Josh Balcarras, told CBC the trail is "not in a remote area" and the women knew it well. "Just a casual walk," he said. He described the two as "two peas in a pod" who shared hobbies and often hiked together.

Josh Balcarras also described the wait for news. "The way it starts is a few hours of not hearing from them. That turns into a day, and then a night, then a second night comes and it becomes a real thing."

Balcarras had recently moved to Bella Coola, a community of roughly 2,100 people, for a new job. She leaves behind three adult children and a grandchild. Reed was her youngest of four. A family-organized GoFundMe is raising money for funeral costs. Relatives wrote that because of the move, Balcarras had not yet built up savings.

A valley with a recent history

Bella Coola sits at the end of a fjord in the area informally known as the Great Bear Rainforest, where grizzlies are a common sight.

Last November, a grizzly injured 11 people, some as young as nine, during a school field trip in the Bella Coola valley. Students and teachers were among the injured. Officials have said it is too early to speculate on any link between that incident and this one.

B.C.'s Ministry of Environment estimates the province has between 10,000 and 13,000 grizzlies, and classifies the species as vulnerable. The ministry describes conflicts between grizzlies and people as "relatively rare" unless the animals are startled or protecting cubs or food. Fatal attacks are rarer still.

The key open questions are how many bears were involved and whether any can be caught and linked to the deaths. The conservation service has said it will assess any captured animal before deciding its fate. The trail area stays closed to the public while officers continue their work, and the coroner has not yet announced a finding on cause of death.