Grizzly bear that killed Yukon mother and baby was starving, injured: coroner’s report

The bear that killed a Yukon mother and her infant child in the Yukon last November was injured and starving, according to a coroner’s report released on Wednesday.

Valé​rie Thé​orêt, 37, and her 10-month-old daughter Adèle were fatally mauled by a grizzly bear outside their remote trapping cabin about 400 kilometres north of Whitehorse on Nov. 26, 2018.

Her partner, Gjermund Roesholt, returned from checking a trap line to find the horrific scene and killed the bear with a rifle when it charged him.

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The report released Wednesday found that the bear, an 18-year-old 137-kilogram male grizzly, was “emaciated and would not have been capable of hibernation given its complete lack of body fat.”

According to a necropsy, the bear likely would not have survived the winter, due to its condition.

What’s more, “the bear may have also been in significant and chronic pain due to multiple porcupine quills penetrating its digestive system from mouth to stomach,” the necropsy found.

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It concluded that the bear was injured by several shots from Roesholt’s rifle, and killed by a gunshot to the head.

According to the report, Thé​orêt had been heading towards a small trap line that was about a 20-minute walk from her cabin with the infant in a carrier on her back when the attack happened.

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The bear had been following a fresh snowmobile track from Einarson Lake, which brought it to that same trap line.

The report concluded that the bear was able to sense something moving towards it, which it could have anticipated to be food and may not have known was human “and moved into a position of advantage under the cover of thick spruce tree branches near the trail from which it attacked.”

The attack left Thé​orêt with injuries that “quickly proved to be fatal,” while those of her child were “instantly incompatible with life,” the report found.

“Investigators concluded that this bear was acting entirely predatory in nature throughout the attack,” it concluded.

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The report makes three recommendations to the Yukon Department of Environment.

First among them is a continued effort to inform the public about the danger of potential bear encounters in the territory at any time of year, along with education about deterrents such as bear spray.

It also recommends increased education for hunters and trappers to ensure they are exercising caution in the backcountry.

“Bears can be drawn to bait sites or carcasses in early winter and there is always the potential for one to be present when checking sites or field dressing an animal,” states the report.

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Finally, it recommends that education efforts emphasize the high risk that injured or distressed bears can pose any time of year.

The attack made headlines around the world, and shocked the tight-knit community of Whitehorse, where the family was based.

Friends say the couple were passionate about their remote cabin, and with the addition of Adèle to their family were “living the dream.”

Thé​orêt, a teacher, was also remembered as a bright, happy person who had a significant impact on her students.