Police escorting students to school after B.C. bear attack that killed two

BELLA COOLA – The Nuxalk Nation in Bella Coola, B.C., said additional Mounties have been brought into the region to escort students to school after a fatal bear attack killed a mother and daughter in the community.

It said in a social media post that police would also be conducting more night patrols in the area and offering rides home for youth who are out at night.

The nation held a drum circle on Wednesday to honour school art therapist Jenny Balcarras and her adult daughter, Selah Reed, whose bodies were found near a set of trials earlier this week.

“We are in a time of layered tragedy,” elected chief Samuel Schooner said in the post, encouraging members to check in on each other.

“The recent attack has brought up many difficult emotions, including painful memories of experiences that some of us are still trying to come to terms with.”

Bella Coola, about 1,000 kilometres north of Vancouver, was also the site of an attack by a grizzly on a group of about 20 elementary school students and teachers last November, leaving an adult and three children badly injured.

The animal involved in that attack was never captured, and the BC Conservation Officer Service has said bear DNA from last year’s attack site would be compared with samples gathered in the wake of the latest attack.

In an update posted to social media on Thursday, the service said conservation officers were working with provincial wildlife biologists, but no animal had been caught. 

“Various trapping techniques are being implemented as these efforts continue, with officers being rotated into the community,” it said.

The post said public safety remained a priority and it urged the public to continue to avoid the Snooka West Trail area where the victims were found.

A post to a fundraiser page set up by Mary Melissa Smith, a relative of Balcarras’s, thanked the nation for setting up the drum circle tribute. 

She highlighted the work of the RCMP and conservation officers, as well as others in the community who have rallied around the family, providing accommodations, food and a floral tribute to the victims.

“The compassion shown by this community has been extraordinary, and we are forever grateful,” Smith said.

Jenny Balcarras’s brother, Matthew Balcarras, said Wednesday that his older sister had built a new career in mid-life as an art therapist and moved to Bella Coola only a few months ago, working at a local school.

The Central Coast Teachers’ Association said on social media that Balcarras had joined their school community as a counsellor in August, and had devoted “countless hours to connecting with the students she served and worked closely with teachers and other staff supporting their well-being.”

Authorities have imposed a voluntary 8 p.m. curfew in the community, as the search for the animal or animals behind the attack continues.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2026.