A tragic discovery was made on Friday when a tourist was found deceased in Colorado’s San Juan National Forest, not far from where two young hunters had lost their lives to a lightning strike just weeks earlier.
The victim, a 54-year-old man from Tennessee, was hiking in a remote section of the South San Juan Wilderness when authorities received a distress call. However, by the time responders arrived, he was already pronounced dead, according to the Conejos County Sheriff’s Office.
A group of fellow hunters had initiated the distress call around 11:23 p.m. local time reporting a medical crisis involving the man, while they attempted CPR, per the sheriff’s office.
It remains unclear whether the deceased man had been part of their group or if they had simply encountered each other on the trail.
The Conejos County Search and Rescue Team was dispatched and found the man already deceased upon their arrival.
Due to “hazardous nighttime conditions,” the rescue team was unable to recover the body and returned at dawn to retrieve him, as noted by the sheriff’s office.
Officials have stated that they are withholding the man’s identity until his family has been notified.
A medical examiner will ascertain the cause of death.
The location of the man’s body was just a few miles away from where the remains of two missing elk hunters were located on September 18, following a week-long search.
The two young hunters, Andrew Porter and Ian Stasko, both 25, were discovered approximately two miles from the Rio de Los Pinos Trailhead in the national forest.
Reports indicate they had been struck by lightning and died instantly. The Conejos County coroner reported that their bodies showed minimal damage except for “slight burns.”
The coroner described their passing as instantaneous, saying, “It’s like you’re alive and then you’re not, just like that. In a split second.”
Porter’s devastated fiancée, in a poignant Facebook post, speculated that the two may have briefly returned to Stasko’s vehicle to change out of wet clothing after being caught in a sudden downpour, and returned to the wilderness only to be struck by lightning.
“Though it may not have been legal yet, he was my husband and partner. We lived together like a married couple for three years. I wish I had 30 more. I feel like a widow, and my future feels so uncertain now,” she expressed in her heartfelt message.
“What brings me solace is knowing that they were doing what they loved, prepared and without fear. This is a strange and horrific natural event. It could have happened to anyone, anywhere.”
The Rio Grande National Forest spans approximately 1.86 million acres, as stated by the National Forest Foundation.
