A Canadian mother and daughter were killed in a suspected grizzly bear attack while taking a “casual walk” on a popular trail near their home.
Art therapist Jennifer Balcarras, 48, and her daughter Selah Reed, 20, a teaching assistant, disappeared Saturday on the Snooka West Trail, just a five-minute drive from their home in Bella Coola, British Columbia.
The alarm was raised when Balcarras, a grandmother and mother of four, failed to show up for a scheduled online catch-up meeting, her brother Matt Balcarras told the Vancouver Sun.
The mother’s mutilated body was found on Monday and that of her daughter a day later.
“There was some evidence to suggest a (grizzly bear) may have been involved,” said Jeff Tyre, an official with the British Columbia Conservation Officer Service.
Officials did not say exactly why they believed it was a bear attack, but said they were “working to locate and capture all bears involved,” a clear indication there could be more than one.
“It is not yet clear if more than one bear was involved. Any bear captured will be assessed. If it is determined to have been involved in the attack, it will be sent in accordance with provincial guidelines for responding to human-wildlife conflicts to protect public safety,” conservation officials said.
The deadly attack was particularly shocking because it happened “very close to their house,” Balcarras’ brother said.
“It’s very close to town and it’s not far away,” he said of the trail. “These weren’t naive city dwellers. They were strong women living their lives.”
“It’s surreal,” his other brother, Josh, told CBC of what started as “just a casual walk.”
“It doesn’t feel real. It feels like a dream.”
Balcarras had recently moved to Bella Coola, an unincorporated community of about 2,000 residents about 268 miles from Vancouver, to “pursue a new career and begin a new chapter in his life,” his friends wrote on a GoFundMe set up to help his three surviving adult children.
“She was working to build her future and had not yet had the opportunity to build savings or put money aside to help her family with such unexpected expenses.
“Tragically, no one could have predicted that his family would face such an unimaginable loss. »
Her daughter, meanwhile, “was only 20 years old, with her whole life ahead of her,” the fundraiser said.
She was just beginning her journey into adulthood, which made this loss even more heartbreaking.
Reed was Balcarras’ youngest child – with Josh Balcarras describing the couple as “two peas in a pod”.
“(Reed) liked a lot of the same things that Jenny liked. I think they got along really well. When Jenny was hiking, Selah was right next to her,” he told CBC.
The mother and daughter were killed less than a year after 11 people were attacked by a bear near Bella Coola.
Three children remained in critical condition after being mauled by the bear in November 2025, who was believed to have been with her two cubs.
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