When Jennifer Balcarras went hiking, her youngest daughter, Selah Reed, usually came along. Jennifer’s brother Josh said the two shared a love of the outdoors. The Snooke West Trail near Bella Coola, British Columbia, was familiar to both of them, just five minutes from home by car.

On Sunday afternoon, Balcarras, 48, and Reed, 20, set out for a walk on that trail. Relatives reported them missing when they failed to return. The B.C. Conservation Officer Service said searchers found Balcarras’s body in the trail area on Monday. They found Reed dead on Tuesday afternoon. Officers were investigating a suspected grizzly bear attack.

For Josh, one of the hardest parts of the search was the passage of time. At first, the family had gone only a few hours without hearing from the women. Then they faced a night of waiting, and eventually a second, after what his sister and niece had expected to be an ordinary walk.

Balcarras, a mother of four, worked locally as an art therapist. Her brother Matthew remembered her through the murals she painted for her family, including those on the walls of his own home. Her brothers also recalled her singing and playing guitar, and how much she loved to read.

Reed worked as an education assistant while studying online at Athabasca University. Relatives described her as quiet and gentle. She loved ballet and shared her mother’s interest in art and hiking.

By Tuesday, conservation officers had set traps in the area but had not yet captured a bear. The service said specialists would examine any bear caught to determine whether it had been involved. Officers said they would kill a bear identified as responsible under provincial guidelines for protecting the public.

The Nuxalk Nation directed residents and reporters to the Conservation Officer Service for updates. Elected Chief Samuel Schooner expressed sympathy for the family and acknowledged how the deaths could affect survivors of a separate grizzly attack the previous year, when several people were critically injured during a school outing south of Highway 20.