Jenny Balcarras and her daughter Selah Reed were reported missing Sunday
British Columbia’s Conservation Officer Service said it was searching for the bear or bears involved in an attack in Bella Coola, along the province’s central coast, that killed art therapist Jenny Balcarras and her daughter Selah Reed. In a video message, Inspector Jeff Tyre said it was “not yet clear if more than one bear was involved.”
Royal Canadian Mounted Police and conservation officers found a second body Tuesday afternoon in a search that followed the discovery of the first set of remains a day earlier. Relatives had reported Balcarras and Reed missing Sunday.
A fundraiser set up by family member Mary Melissa Smith said Reed was 20, “with her whole life ahead of her.” Smith said Balcarras leaves three young adult children, as well as a grandchild, and had recently moved to Bella Coola to pursue a new career and start a new chapter in her life.
Smith said Balcarras leaves a son, two daughters and a grandson who are “faced with the devastating loss of their mother.” The children are navigating the financial burden of arranging funeral services, Smith said, and she described the family’s loss as “such an unimaginable loss.”
The Central Coast Teachers’ Association said on social media that Balcarras had joined its school community as a counselor in August. The association said she devoted “countless hours to connecting with the students she served and worked closely with teachers and other staff supporting their well-being.”
Tyre said efforts to capture the bear or bears continued and that any captured animals would be assessed. He also said any animals captured by the service would be killed in accordance with provincial guidelines to make sure the public was safe.
Officers are in regular contact with the nearby Nuxalk Nation and the Bella Coola community, Tyre said, and are providing updates. He said people should continue to stay away from the west trail area of the Snootka trail system, where the attack happened.
The fatal attack came nearly a year after a grizzly attack on a group of 20 elementary school students and teachers in the same area that left one adult and three children badly hurt. The animal involved in that attack last November was never captured.
Kim Titchener, founder of Bear Safety & More Inc. based in Calgary, said she was concerned after seeing reports about the women on Facebook hiking groups. “When I saw that they were missing and in the area that they were missing, my heart just dropped because I just kind of knew this could be a bear attack,” Titchener said.
She said several day cares and school groups called her for bear safety training following the earlier attack. “This community and area have suffered so much last year,” she said, referring to the schoolgroup attack.
Titchener said Bella Coola is well known for its large population of grizzly and black bears, and that it is common for people in the community to see bears walking near their homes.
Titchener said there have been “concerning pressures” on bear populations in British Columbia because of the loss of habitat and food stress caused by drought and climate change, setting off more conflicts with people. She said, “I don’t know if Bella Coola suffered from any drought issues, but certainly other parts of the province of B.C. did.”