Search teams in Canada have discovered the body of a 20-year-old woman and confirmed that both she and her mother were killed in an attack that conservation officers now believe could have involved multiple grizzly bears.

Late on Tuesday, conservation officers in British Columbia said the two women, who were reported missing over the weekend, were located near a trail a short distance from their home.

The discovery has shaken a community where, earlier in the year, a grizzly attacked a group of schoolchildren and their teachers.

“Our thoughts are with the families of the victims during this tragic time,” inspector Jeff Tyre said in a video posted online. Tyre later said the conservation service is probing the possibility that more than one bear was involved in the fatal attack.

“We appreciate people’s concerns and the desire to assist but it is critical the public stay out of the area – both due to the danger and to allow officers to do their work,” he said.

Jenny Balcarras, an art therapist, and her daughter Selah Reed were reported missing by relatives over the weekend. A family member posted on Facebook about them, later updating it after the conservation service announced the suspected attack to indicate that their vehicle had been found at a trailhead near Bella Coola, British Columbia. Balcarras’s remains were found first and Reed was located a day later.

A fundraiser for Balcarras started by her family mourned a woman who had recently moved to Bella Coola, a community of roughly 2,100 people, for a new job and “to start a new chapter” of her life. She leaves behind three adult children and a grandchild.

“[Jenny] was working toward building a future and had not yet had the opportunity to establish savings or put aside funds to help her family with unexpected expenses such as these,” wrote relative Mary Melissa Smith. “Tragically, no one could have anticipated that her family would be faced with such an unimaginable loss.”

The family also mourned 20-year-old Selah, who had her “whole life ahead of her” before the attack.

“She was only beginning her journey into adulthood, making this loss even more heartbreaking,” wrote Smith.

Both Balcarras and Reed had lived in communities in remote and rugged parts of the province, as well as time in Alaska.

The suspected attack happened at the Snooka West trail area, about 8km (4.97 miles) east of Bella Coola, on the province’s central coast.

Bella Coola, which sits at the end of a fjord along the province’s central coast, is a remote location, and abundant food sources mean that grizzly bears are a common sight in the region, which is informally known as the Great Bear rainforest.

Grizzly attacks in the province are exceedingly rare, but last November, 11 people, some as young as nine years old, were injured when a grizzly emerged from the forest near 4 Mile, a Nuxalk community, and attacked a school group on a lunch break alongside a walking trail. Despite an extensive search, the bear was never located.

Samuel Schooner, elected chief of the Nuxalk Nation, said on Tuesday: “Our thoughts are with the victim’s family as they learn of this tragic event.” Schooner said a trapping effort to find the bear was under way and asked media to refrain from contacting community members.

The province’s premier-designate, Lorne Doerkson, called the news “heartbreaking” and said he was thinking of the victims’ family and the Nuxalk Nation.

“At a time of such profound grief and uncertainty, my thoughts are with everyone who is hurting and with all those supporting one another through an incredibly difficult day.”