RCMP and the Yukon Coroner’s Service are investigating the death of a mother and her 10-month-old daughter.
The coroner says 37-year-old Valérie Théorêt and her daughter Adele Roesholt were found dead Monday by the child’s father at a remote cabin northeast of Mayo.
Gjermund Roesholt was returning from his trapline and as he got close to home, he was charged by a grizzly bear.
He shot and killed it. When he got to the cabin, he found the bodies of his wife and child.
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The coroner said it appears the mother and child had been out for a walk when the incident occurred, sometime between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Nov. 26.
The family was based in Whitehorse where Théorêt worked as a French immersion teacher at a local elementary school.
They had been trapping in the Einarson Lake area for several months while Théorêt was on maternity leave
Bruce Dent, vice-principal at Whitehorse Elementary, said Théorêt had worked at the school for seven or eight years.
“She taught different grade levels and was really well-loved by her students, by their parents, by her colleagues,” he said. “She was really great.”
“The community is definitely in mourning. It’s always difficult to lose anyone. It’s particularly difficult when it’s such a shocking, unforeseen instance. It’s going to take a lot of time for people around her to get over it.”
Dent noted that Théorêt and her husband were “very experienced outdoors people.”
Mayo RCMP, the RCMP’s Forensic Identification Section, and Yukon Government’s Department of the Environment are assisting Yukon Coroner’s Service with this investigation.
— With files from Sarah MacDonald
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