Mother Killed, 19-Year-Old Daughter Missing in Suspected Grizzly Attack in Canada

A mother has died and her daughter is missing in western Canada after a suspected grizzly bear attack, in the same community where a bear attacked a group of schoolchildren earlier in the year.

The British Columbia Conservation Officer Service said in a social media post on Tuesday that it had launched a search for the two missing people over the weekend, and that during the search on Sunday an officer found the mother’s body. The search for her 19-year-old daughter is ongoing.

Inspector Jeff Tyre said in a video posted online that their thoughts are with the families of the victims during this tragic time.

Jenny Balcarras, an art therapist, and her daughter were reported missing by relatives over the weekend. A family member posted about them on Facebook and later updated it, after the conservation service announced the suspected attack, to say their vehicle had been found at a trailhead near Bella Coola, British Columbia.

The suspected attack happened in the Snooka West trail area, about 8 kilometres (4.97 miles) east of Bella Coola, on the province’s central coast.

Bella Coola, a community of roughly 2,100 people, sits at the end of a fjord along the province’s central coast. Its remote location and abundant food sources mean grizzly bears are a common sight in the region, which is informally known as the Great Bear rainforest.

Grizzly attacks in the province are exceedingly rare, but last November 11 people, some as young as nine, were injured when a grizzly emerged from the forest near 4 Mile, a Nuxalk community, and attacked a school group on a lunch break beside a walking trail. Despite an extensive search, that bear was never located.

Samuel Schooner, elected chief of the Nuxalk Nation, said on Tuesday that while the full circumstances are still unfolding, they understand first-hand the trauma the incident will inflict on the victims’ family members, the victims of last year’s attack and the community at large, and that their thoughts are with the victim’s family.

Schooner said a trapping effort to find the bear was under way and asked the media to refrain from contacting community members.