Friend says Yukon family at centre of bear attack experienced trappers

WHITEHORSE — A family at the centre of a fatal grizzly bear attack northeast of Mayo, Yukon, were experienced trappers, says a friend who had known them for years.

Brian Melanson, who heads the Yukon Trappers Association, is part of a community supporting Gjermund Roesholt, whose partner and 10-month-old daughter were mauled to death by a grizzly on Monday.

“His whole life has been taken from him in a horrific accident,” Melanson said Thursday. “What we do now is doing what we can to collect funds to help him in his life over the next year so he can try and pick up the pieces and rebuild what he has.

Melanson said his trapline is set up near the couple’s, in a remote area close to the Northwest Territories border, where only the hardiest of trappers venture.

“They were both well-experienced bush people,” he said. “This is their third season on that site and they’d already been there for three months. They were set up comfortably. This is their lifestyle.”

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The Yukon Coroner’s Service said Roesholt spent Monday on his trapline and returned to the couple’s cabin in near Einarson Lake to find 37-year-old Valerie Theoret and their baby Adele Roesholt dead.

The service said Roesholt had returned at about 3 p.m. when he was charged by a grizzly bear about 100 metres from the family’s cabin.

“He was forced to shoot the bear dead,” the service said, adding the man found the bodies of his partner and daughter outside the cabin.

“It appears they had been out for a walk when the incident happened, sometime between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.,” the service said.

It said the RCMP and Environment Yukon are assisting the service with an investigation.

Environment Yukon said earlier Thursday tests will be performed on the body of the bear in an effort to try to find out why it killed the two people.

Environment Yukon spokeswoman Roxanne Stasyszyn said it’s hoped the examination will offer some clues about what motivated the grizzly to attack.

Experts have offered a number of theories, ranging from the mother accidentally surprising the grizzly at close quarters to the possibility that the animal was injured, ill or intended to attack and prey on the victims.

A memorial was scheduled for Thursday at the Association franco-yukonnaise in Whitehorse.

Theoret taught French immersion in elementary school and was active in the association and the Whitehorse community.

Stasyszyn said active bears have been spotted in November, December or even January.

“The climate impacts that, and we are having quite a mild winter at the moment, so it’s not unusual to see bears out at this time,” she said.

Stasyszyn did not comment on when or where the examination, called a necropsy, will take place, but said Environment Yukon is committed to providing more details as soon as the investigation concludes. (CKRW, The Canadian Press)

The Canadian Press