The incident that launched this Predator Watch series in 2025 happened during a family hike in Lake Arrowhead, Calif. Here’s how I recounted it in the inaugural column:
It was the last day of a family trip, and we decided to enjoy one final hike in the San Bernardino Mountains. My wife, our two children (then about 10 and 8), and I are not avid hikers, but it was a beautiful day, and we felt the call. As we made our way up the trail, another family was coming down hastily. Its patriarch, a concerned look on his face, stopped us and warned, “There’s a mother bear just around the corner with her cubs. You might want to turn back.”
Now, I’m no wildlife expert—but even I know you don’t want to mess with a mama bear and her cubs. I was surprised to find that my family seemed less concerned than I was. My oldest son suggested we simply take a different trail in the other direction, but I insisted we get back in the car pronto and head home. As I navigated the zigzagging curves of Highway 18, I kept thinking to myself, “Did my family really just come that close to getting mauled by a bear?"
Today I'm asking: "Were a mother and her daughter really just killed in a grizzly bear attack while on a short walk?" Sadly, that's exactly what appears to have happened to 48-year-old Jennifer Balcarras and her 20-year-old daughter, Selah Reed.
On Saturday, Balcarras and Reed went for a walk on a trail near their home in the Bella Coola area of British Columbia. They never came home.
The story reminded me not only of my family hike in Lake Arrowhead, but also of just the other night, when my wife and son went for a walk in the neighborhood and were gone for an extra hour without answering their phone. I got nervous and got in my car to find them. They were fine. They had simply decided to take a longer walk and forgot to call. I can’t imagine how frantic I’d be if they had been missing through the night and beyond. Balcarras’s brother described what his wait was like after his sister and her daughter didn’t return home Saturday:
“It’s surreal. It doesn’t seem real. It feels like a dream,” he told CBC News. “The way it starts is a few hours of not hearing from them. That turns into a day, and then a night … then a second night comes and it becomes a real thing.” He also said that they had gone for “just a casual walk” on Snooka West Trail, which they knew very well and is “not in a remote area.”
Related: Predator Watch: Horror in Enclosure — Leopard Kills Zookeeper, Wolf Leaves Girl Fighting for Life
Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and rescue crews began a search for Balcarras and Reed after their family reported them missing on Sunday, and first came across their vehicle at a trailhead. Balcarras’s body was found on Monday, while her daughter’s remains were found on Tuesday. “There was evidence to suggest a [grizzly] bear may have been involved,” British Columbia Conservation Officer Service Inspector Jeff Tyre said in a statement, adding that efforts to capture the bear or bears involved in the attack are ongoing.
Both victims worked in education: Balcarras as a school counselor and her daughter as an educational assistant. A GoFundMe set up to help the family pay for funeral costs has raised over $30,000.
Another grizzly bear attack in Bella Coola made headlines less than a year ago. A grizzly bear described as “aggressive” attacked a group of students and teachers in the Bella Coola Valley in November 2025. Fortunately, no one was killed, although two people were critically injured.
The last time a mother and daughter were victims of a grizzly bear attack in Canada was in 2019, when a male grizzly killed Valérie Théorêt, 37, and her 10-month-old daughter, Adèle, as they walked near their remote cabin in Yukon. A government investigation found that the attack could not have been prevented, as the bear was injured and desperate for food. The Guardian reported in 2019:
“This bear had started turning to uncommon food sources and was in pain from having previously consumed a porcupine to avoid starving to death,” said [chief conservation officer] Hitchcock. “Bears do not typically eat porcupines.”
An examination found spines from the porcupine had pierced the bear’s stomach, likely causing it intense pain and preventing it from hunting as winter drew nearer.
Officials believe the bear saw and followed snowmobile tracks left by Théorêt’s husband, Gjermund Roesholt, who was away checking fur traps. The bear is thought to have arrived at the family cabin near Einarson Lake, a remote area 400km (250 miles) from the territory’s capital of Whitehorse. The bear probably spotted Théorêt and her daughter, hiding among brush until it could strike.
“The attack appeared sudden. All evidence suggests Valérie did not have time to react,” said Hitchcock.
When Roesholt returned to the cabin, the bear charged at him. He shot the bear four times, killing it. Soon after, he found his wife and daughter.
I don’t carry a gun when hiking with my son in our local mountains, but I have made an effort to engage in conversation as much as possible, and BearWise confirms this isn’t a bad idea:
Make noise periodically and most wildlife, including bears, will avoid you. Don’t rely on bear bells to alert bears to your presence. Your own voice is more effective. No need to continuously blast your air horn or whistle. Just use your outdoor voice to carry on a conversation, even if you’re only talking to yourself.
