FATAL WALK

Mother and Daughter Dead in Suspected Grizzly Bear Attack

“They were not naive city folks. They were strong women,” a family member said.

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A mother and daughter were killed in a suspected bear attack in British Columbia. The daughter’s brother, Matt Balcarras, reported Jenny Balcarras, 48, and daughter Selah Reed, 19, missing in Bella Coola on November 1 after Reed didn’t show up for an online meet-up the night before. Police and rescue crews found their vehicle at a trailhead before finding Balcarras by Monday afternoon, with evidence of animal involvement. Police found Reed a day later. Although the valley is largely considered remote, Matt Balcarras said the trail was “not remote” and “very close to their house.” This comes almost one year after a similar attack on a field trip of 20 students and teachers that had stopped for lunch, injuring three kids and one adult. Balcarras was a mother of four and a grandmother who had just moved to Bella Coola over the summer. Reed, her youngest child, came to the valley to work as an art therapist, according to Matt Balcarras. “They were not naive city folks. They were strong women living the life,” he said. Conservationists are investigating the area to find and trap the bear responsible and kill it due to the inability to relocate an aggressive bear that has lost its natural fear of humans.