Woman, Baby Daughter Killed By Grizzly Bear At Remote Cabin
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EINARSON LAKE, Canada (CBS Local) -- A mother on maternity leave and her 10-month-old daughter were mauled to death Monday by a grizzly bear at a remote cabin in Canada's Yukon territory, officials said.
The bodies of Valerie Theoret, 37, and her daughter, Adele Roesholt, were found outside their cabin near Einarson Lake.
"It appears they had been out for a walk when the incident occurred, sometime between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.," the Yukon Coroner's Service said in a news release.
The woman's partner and baby's father, Gjermund Roesholt, was away from the cabin trapping in the Einarson Lake area at the time of the attack. He returned just before 3 p.m. and was immediately charged by a grizzly bear about 328 feet from the cabin.
Roesholt shot and killed the animal before discovering Theoret and their daughter dead outside.
The family had been living in the cabin for the past three months. Theoret was on maternity leave from her job teaching Grade 6 French immersion at Whitehorse Elementary School in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory.
"It was the plan all along to go there and spend a lot of time there, but Valerie couldn't really take a lot of time off because she was a teacher," Remy Beaupre, a friend of Theoret, told CBC News. "Being on her maternity leave, now was the opportunity for them to all go as a family. So they just took their baby and went out on the trap line."
Beaupre said the couple bought the cabin three years ago and were "well-prepared for anything that could have happened. But, you never know."
"It's a big, big blow. Everybody is totally devastated right now," Beaupre said.
