There’s a large population of bears living in B.C.’s Bella Coola Valley, where a mother and daughter were tragically killed in a grizzly attack this week. That hasn’t stopped speculation the incident may have involved the same bear that mauled a group of local school children last year—and which was never captured, despite an intensive effort to locate the animal. Insp. Jeff Tyre of the B.C. Conservation Officer Service was asked about the possibility of a connection twice Wednesday while providing an update on the latest attack, but stressed that it was “too early to even speculate.” “We’re still in the early stages of the investigation,” Tyre added. He did note conservation officers have a DNA profile of the grizzly from the November 2025 attack, which left three children and an adult seriously injured. Officers will be creating a similar profile of the bear or bears that killed art therapist Jenny Balcarras and her daughter Selah Reed, who were reported missing Sunday and found approximately 150 metres apart on the Snooka Trail System, near the community of Bella Coola. That profile will help the B.C. Conservation Officer Service determine whether any bears captured over the coming weeks were responsible for the deaths—and potentially draw or rule out a connection to last year’s attack as well. “That would be the only linkage we could put towards that,” Tyre said. This is a developing story and will be updated.
