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Coroner: Missing hunters were killed after being struck by lightning
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Two 25-year-old men were struck by lightning and died after being reported missing during a hunting trip in southern Colorado, Conejos County Coroner Richard Martin said in a phone interview Monday afternoon.
“I’ve been a coroner for many, many years,” he said. “It’s very unusual.”
Martin said the men were indirectly struck by the lightning.
“I think (when) the lightning hit ... they were standing by the tree,” he said. “The force came down and (forced them to fall) away from the tree. ... A direct lightning strike would make entrance and exit wounds and they didn’t really have that, in a sense.”
Andrew Porter of Asheville, North Carolina, and Ian Stasko of Salt Lake City, both 25, had been missing for a week before being found by Colorado search and rescue personnel on Thursday, Porter’s aunt, Lynne Runkle, said in a GoFundMe page.
Air operations, ground teams, dog teams, drone teams, local volunteers and members of New Mexico State Police Search and Rescue all assisted with the operation, according to the sheriff’s office.
On Thursday, the Conejos County Sheriff’s Office announced two men were found 2 miles from the Rio de Los Pinos Trailhead.
A few days earlier, on Saturday, Sept. 13, the sheriff’s office had responded to a call of two bow hunters — later identified as Porter and Stasko — being missing in the Rio Grande National Forest, according to a sheriff’s office news release.
Porter and Stasko were in the San Juan Wilderness Area, west of Trujillo Meadows Reservoir, when they failed to check in with their loved ones, deputies said. Deputies found their vehicle along with camping gear and backpacks, “prompting deputies to become concerned due to heavy rain and bad weather.”
There was a lot of lightning in the area when they lost contact with their families, Martin said.
