DNA Links Four Grizzly Bears to Deadly Attack on Mother and Daughter in British Columbia

Wildlife officials in British Columbia said Tuesday that DNA evidence conclusively links four grizzly bears, a female and her three yearling cubs, to the deaths of Jennifer Balcarras, 48, and her 20-year-old daughter, Selah Reed, near Bella Coola. All four bears were killed to protect the public. The British Columbia Conservation Officer Service said the bears were captured over the weekend. Inspector Jeff Tyre told an online briefing that the attack likely involved predatory behavior, which he called very rare, and that investigators do not know how it started. The women's remains were found about 150 meters apart near a trail outside Bella Coola, a remote community about 1,000 kilometers north of Vancouver. Family members raised the alarm after Reed missed a routine Saturday night call with her sister. Searchers found her mother first, then Reed in a bear cache. Tyre said the bears were not involved in a November attack on about 20 elementary school students and teachers in the same area. That attack injured 11 people, two critically. The Nuxalk Nation community has imposed a voluntary curfew, and police have escorted children to school.

Left-leaning CBS News leads with the DNA confirmation and the rarity of a predatory attack. It centers Tyre's "how it ended" remark, the search sequence, and the November attack's toll of 11 injured. The New York Times headline instead stresses authorities killing the bears, and its excerpt gives the DNA link and the hiking-trail setting. Right-leaning New York Post runs nearly the same text as CBS, with a DNA-focused headline, though it gives the distance between the remains differently. Fox News leads with the DNA link and the decision to kill the bears under provincial guidelines, citing a Nov. 10 agency statement. It features Tyre's remarks on closure for the families and the community, notes that officials did not elaborate on how the attack unfolded, and adds that more than a dozen officers worked in difficult terrain. Both sides agree on the identities, the DNA findings and the predatory-behavior assessment. BBC News largely matches them.