Selah Reed’s family first realized something was wrong when the 20-year-old missed a routine Saturday evening call with her sister.
The next morning, when no one had heard from Reed or his mother, Jenny Balcarras, they asked the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to check their home in Bella Coola, on British Columbia’s central coast. Balcarras’ car was missing and the doors were locked. They found the car at a trailhead on the road, but Balcarras and Reed were nowhere to be found.
Family members across Canada and the United States began to mobilize. Jenny Balcarras’ brother, Matt, headed north from Vancouver Island and her brother traveled from Calgary. They met up and drove all night, but received a call Monday evening that their sister had been killed. probably by a grizzly bear.
When they arrived at the trailhead Tuesday morning, ready to join the search for Reed, his remains had also been found. The search was now a tragic recovery effort.
The killings of Jennifer Balcarras, 48, and her daughter occurred just 3 to 4 kilometers (1.8 to 2.4 miles) from where a grizzly bear attacked a group of people. schoolchildren and teachers last year while walking on a trail. Eleven were injured, including two seriously, during the attack on November 20, 2025.
Jeff Tyre, an inspector with the Conservation Officer Service, said the aggressive bear was never captured, but authorities were able to collect its DNA. Authorities set new traps in hopes of catching the bear involved in last weekend’s attack and finding out if it was the same bear from a year ago. They also don’t know if more than one bear was involved.
Terry Webber, chief administrative officer of the Nuxalk Nation, said the killings were a trigger for families traumatized by last year’s attack.
“Our community is still healing,” he said, adding that they have imposed a curfew and are providing mental health services to the community. “Our priority is to ensure their safety and ensure the support of our community.”
Bear attack complicates search
The delay in searching for the remains of the two women was complicated by the difficult terrain, even though it was close to the trailhead, and by the behavior of the grizzly bear.
Searchers first found Jenny Balcarras, then her daughter. The search was aided by more resources and a cadaver dog, Matt Balcarras said.
Researchers found her niece’s remains in a bear cache – a place where bears hide food, sometimes by digging a small hole and covering it with branches and vegetation to keep other animals and birds away.
“Even though it was less than 100 meters (330 feet), locating the remains in a cache is difficult,” he said.
By the time authorities located his niece, she could only be identified by her clothing, he said. His sister was in a similar condition, but they knew who she was because of several small tattoos, he said.
“There is no obvious body to identify,” he said. “The coroner’s investigation will include DNA and dental analyses. But there is no doubt that the remains found are theirs.”
Balcarras was comfortable in difficult environments
Grizzly bears are common around the Bella Coola community, officials said. Conservation officials maintain a hotline for people to report problem bears, but no calls have been received recently, Tire said during a news briefing.
Balcarras, an art therapist, had moved to Bella Coola over the summer. She had previously lived in Alaska, where her children were born, and was “the central organizing person in our family,” Matt Balcarras said.
“In the classic, strong style of a single mother, she managed to build a career and a life for herself and her children,” Balcarras said. She was small in stature but strong in character and physical ability, he said.
She lived at ease among wildlife, he said.
“She lived in the bush when her children were babies,” he said. “She and my niece were not naive, stupid, or misinformed. They have lived in these areas and been around countless species of animals for years and years and decades.”
Gn world
