One Dead, One Missing After a Suspected Grizzly Attack Near Bella Coola

One person is dead and a second is still missing after a suspected grizzly bear attack on a trail network near Bella Coola, on British Columbia's Central Coast. Searchers found the remains of one of the pair on 2 November. No bear has been captured.

One Dead, One Missing After a Suspected Grizzly Attack Near Bella Coola

Bella Coola, British Columbia — 3 November 2026 — The BC Conservation Officer Service says the two were reported missing by family members on 1 November, and that evidence at the scene suggested an animal may have been involved. The search for the second person is continuing, and the service has asked the public to stay out of the area.

What the Conservation Officer Service Has Said

Insp. Jeff Tyre of the BC Conservation Officer Service recorded a video statement as the search got under way. "Our thoughts are with the families of the victims during this tragic time," he said. "We are working to support the family as our investigation continues."

His second message was for the public. "We urge people to stay away from Snooka West Trail area for their own safety," Tyre said. "We appreciate people's concerns and the desire to assist, but it is critical the public stay out of the area - both due to the danger and to allow officers to do their work."

The service has described the case in its own posts as a suspected fatal bear attack in the Snooka West Trail area. It said all available resources were being deployed to locate and trap any bears that might have been involved. In his video, Tyre said no bears had been captured at that point.

From a Missing-Persons Report to a Recovery

Family members reported the pair missing on Sunday 1 November. The search that followed involved the RCMP and Bella Coola Valley Search and Rescue, and it was during that effort, on the afternoon of Monday 2 November, that the remains of one person were found in the west trail area of the Snooka trail system.

The Conservation Officer Service was called in after evidence at the scene suggested an animal may have been involved. An earlier Canadian Press news alert placed the discovery in the Snooka West Trail area; the agency's fuller account describes the west trail area of the Snooka trail system.

Relatives publicly identified the two missing people as art therapist Jenny Balcarras and her daughter. Kara Balcarras, who described herself as Jenny Balcarras's sister-in-law, posted about the pair on Facebook and later updated the post with the service's statement. She said their vehicle had been found at a trailhead near Bella Coola. The BC Coroners Service has not released the identity of the person whose remains were found.

The Trails South of Highway 20

The Snooka trail system sits just south of Highway 20, according to a map published by the Bella Coola Community Forest. The remains were found in the western part of that network. Bella Coola is about 700 kilometres northwest of Vancouver, reachable by road from the Interior along Highway 20 or by air through the Bella Coola airport. One academic source puts the population of the Bella Coola Reserve at approximately 850 people.

The same highway corridor was the setting for the earlier attack, on 20 November 2025, which took place on a trail called the "Old Trail," near Highway 20, in the Four Mile area of the valley.

That is the geography of this place: a valley floor with a road down it, forest on both walls, and trail systems branching off the road into the trees. Both of the community's recent encounters with a grizzly have happened on trails off Highway 20, one of them confirmed and the present one still only suspected.

A Community That Has Done This Before

On Thursday 20 November 2025, a grizzly attacked a group of about 20 elementary school students and teachers in Bella Coola. They were fourth- and fifth-graders from Acwsalcta School, an independent pre-K-12 school operated by the Nuxalk Nation, and they had stopped along a trail near a river.

BC Emergency Health Services took a call at 1:46 p.m. PT about an "animal attack"; two ambulances and a community paramedic responded. Eleven people were injured in all, four of them seriously. Three children and one staff member were badly hurt, and seven others were treated at the scene.

Multiple teachers physically intervened, using bear spray and a noise-making bear banger to drive the animal off. Parent Veronica Schooner told the Associated Press that one male teacher "got the whole brunt of it." Chief Samuel Schooner praised the teachers' "heroic actions," saying: "Knowing that they were tasked with making the ultimate decision of life and death, they chose to lay their lives on the line for the students."

The Bear That Was Never Found

Twenty-four conservation officers worked the search that followed, including officers who drove overnight. At least eight bears were captured. DNA and other forensic evidence ruled out the involvement of four of them, taken on Wednesday 3 December 2025.

On Friday 5 December 2025 the service stopped. There had been no other bear sightings in the area for five days, it said, and bears begin denning at that time of year, so officers were no longer actively trying to capture bears and the equipment was removed. The last four taken - an adult female and three cubs - were to be released far from Bella Coola, as the previous four had been.

Insp. Kevin Van Damme of the service said of that attack: "the actions of this bear were aggressive and unlike any other documented grizzly bear attack we have seen in B.C., or Canada." Brian Falconer of the Raincoast Conservation Foundation said that to his knowledge no grizzly had ever attacked a group of more than six people. "This is not rare," he said. "This is unique."

What Happens If a Bear Is Caught

The service's rules for a capture are explicit. Any bear taken would be assessed to determine the appropriate next steps, and one determined to be responsible "will be dispatched to ensure public safety, as per provincial human-wildlife conflict response guidelines."

What a capture looks like in practice was set out during the 2025 search. Bears taken then and not linked to the attack were fitted with tracking collars and relocated within their home range, far from the Bella Coola community, in coordination with Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship biologists and the provincial wildlife veterinarian.

Four agencies are working the case alongside the service: the BC Coroners Service, Bella Coola RCMP, Bella Coola Valley Search and Rescue, and Nuxalk Nation liaisons. Officers were assessing the site and collecting and analyzing evidence. The service has not said that a bear has been caught, identified or killed.

Anyone with information is asked to call 1-877-952-RAPP (7277), the Report All Poachers and Polluters line. The service said further updates were expected as the investigation continues.

Why This Coast Holds So Many Grizzlies

British Columbia holds a lot of grizzlies. Provincial material puts the number at a minimum of about 13,800; other provincial material says approximately 15,000, about a quarter of the entire North American population. The same material states that conservation officers have to kill about 50 grizzly bears every year for reasons of public safety.

COSEWIC's 2025 assessment puts Canada's western population at 27,756 to 29,883 bears of all ages, and about 12,490 to 13,447 mature animals. It describes the population as stable or increasing.

Distribution is not even. COSEWIC says grizzlies are prevalent in central and northern British Columbia and along the Central Coast, which is where Bella Coola sits, while the southern interior and the southwest of the province now see critically low numbers. It lists human-caused mortality, habitat loss and changes in food availability as the primary causes of past and potential future decline, and warns that more death from human-bear conflict or vehicle collisions could tip a population down.

The Number Behind the Argument

British Columbia banned grizzly bear hunting in 2017. Before the ban the province issued 250 grizzly hunting licences a year, against a population then estimated at 15,000.

The BC Wildlife Federation argues the ban changed the arithmetic of conflict. It says the Conservation Officer Service took 300 to 500 calls a year about grizzlies in the decade before 2017, and about 1,000 a year since. "With no hunting pressure, grizzlies and humans will increasingly occupy the same spaces with inevitable consequences," executive director Jesse Zeman said in a news release. The federation called the decision to end the hunt "a shortsighted move."

The official counts are smaller and more specific. Figures given to the Union of BC Municipalities record 809 grizzly bear calls to the service in the 2023 calendar year, against 23,649 for black bears, and 25 black bear human-injury reports, 19 of them in urban areas. None of these numbers establishes what caused either attack in Bella Coola.

What the Nuxalk Nation Asked of Residents

Elected Chief Samuel Schooner issued a press release on 3 November. The nation, he said, understands first-hand the trauma the incident will inflict on the victim's family, on the victim of last year's attack, and on the community at large. "Our thoughts are with the victim's family as they learn of this tragic event," he said.

Schooner said the immediate priority was people. "At the present we are focused on taking care of community members," he said. "We want to thank our local first responders the Nuxalk Guardian Watchmen and Bella Coola Valley Search and Rescue, the BC Conservation Officer Service, the RCMP, and everyone who has reached out to offer their support."

The release asked residents to stay away from the Snooka West Trail and the surrounding area. It also asked them to "take all necessary precautions outdoors, stay close to young children and ensure our spaces are free of any attractants."

What Is Still Unknown

No cause of death has been established. No bear has been captured, identified as responsible, or killed. The coroner has not released the identity, sex or age of the person found dead. No detail has been released about the condition of the remains or the nature of any injuries.

No member of the Balcarras family has spoken beyond the sister-in-law's Facebook post. No confirmed total exists for the number of grizzly attacks in British Columbia this year. The service has not confirmed that a bear involved in the 20 November 2025 attack was captured or identified. No arrests, charges or enforcement action against any person have been reported.

What is known is narrow and hard. Two people were reported missing from a trail system off Highway 20. One has been found dead, one has not been found, and the search for the second person is still running.

By Jessica Ali, Staff Writer

This article was produced with AI-assisted research and editorial support. Sources: The Canadian Press, Global News, Black Press Media, CBC News, the BC Conservation Officer Service, the Nuxalk Nation, COSEWIC, the Province of British Columbia and the Union of B.C. Municipalities. Photographs: a road in the Bella Coola Valley, Wallace Howe, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; the Bella Coola waterfront, Christopher Michel, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; a grizzly on the Atnarko River near Bella Coola, Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press. Cover: Global 1 News editorial image.