Two elk hunters found dead in southern Colorado after a massive search were the victims of a lightning strike, authorities confirmed Monday.
Conejos County Coroner Richard Martin, speaking to The Colorado Sun, confirmed Andrew Porter and Ian Stasko were killed by lightning while hunting southwest of Monte Vista.
The hunters were found below a tree and had slight burns on their bodies, Martin said.
“A slight burn is like if you take a match and stick it on your arm,” he said. “And there were only two or three of them,” he said.
He said the hunters’ deaths were likely instantaneous, but he could not confirm the exact time of death.
“That kind of death is just instant. It’s like you’re alive and now you’re not,” Martin said. “Just that quick. Split second.”
Conejos County Sheriff Garth Crowther said Porter and Stasko were clothed and with one small daypack between them when searchers found them Sept. 18. They had not set up a camp, and were dressed in camouflage clothing Crowther described as “not the warmest.” Their bodies were located close together and six days after the men were last seen at the Rio de Los Pinos trailhead.
One of the men had a bow with him, Crowther said. Neither had a gun. They did not activate an emergency GPS beacon.
Martin performed the autopsy Monday morning.
Investigators did not find any obvious signs of foul play or injuries on their bodies.
Search and rescue teams found the hunters’ bodies two miles above the Rio de Los Pinos trail in the South San Juan Wilderness, ending a nearly weeklong search.
Last week, Martin said first responders saw no signs of a lightning strike. Inside the hunters’ car, which was parked at the trailhead at around 10,000 feet, authorities found wet clothes. None of the gear Porter would need to hunt, harvest or pack out elk was in the car.
The odds of getting struck are 1 in 1.2 million in a given year and 1 in 15,300 in a lifetime , the weather service estimates.
Fucking hell. That’s a lot higher than I would have assumed for lifetime risk of lightning strike.
Its definitely not impossible, but would normally expect some evidence that lightening had hit the area where they were found right?
Plus the burns it usually leaves are very distinctive even in people that survive. Kinda crazy they didn’t show any signs of it happening.
The stats are thrown off by that one park ranger who had been struck 7 times.
Shockingly high odds
But Thor, you are a Mighty Hunter yourself!
Really sad story out of Colorado about 2 James Madison graduates found deceased after disappearing for a hunting trip. One of the men checked in with his fiancee on the afternoon of September 11th, and someone said they spotted them on September 12th. Police started looking for them on September 13th.
It’s odd that they were very experienced, but weren’t dressed like they were prepared for the weather. There was camping gear, but no weapons or hunting gear found in the car or at the scene other than a single bow and arrow.
Then this report says they definitely had hunting gear when they set out.
GPS coordinates obtained from a Garmin InReach satellite communication device pinpoint where the two went between Sept. 7 and Sept 11.
The two spent the night at the trailhead Sept. 7 and set out, on foot, to a campsite roughly two miles north. There, GPS data says, they spent the next three days at that location until they left the morning of Sept. 11.
That morning, they headed south to the trailhead and their car. 9NEWS Senior Meteorologist Chris Bianchi said rain moved into the area that same day.
It appears the two spent the night of Sept. 11 in their car and set out again the next morning.
The Garmin did not communicate their whereabouts that day. Bianchi said the immediate area was hit hard by a storm around 4 p.m. Sept. 12. Temperatures quickly dipped into the 30s and, later, into the 20s as heavy rain – and eventually snow – fell on the area.
The two were expected to leave the area last Monday to fly home – Porter to North Carolina and Stasko to Utah.
By Wednesday, dozens of search teams assembled in the area to look for the pair. They were ultimately found roughly two miles away from the trailhead on Thursday morning.
The two, according to numerous Facebook posts, were carrying phones, the Garmin, bows, knives, game bags, light hunting gear and clothing.
