Posted on 09/23/2025 9:10:30 AM PDT by Red Badger
The bodies of two elk hunters — Andrew Porter of Asheville, North Carolina, and Ian Stasko of Salt Lake City, Utah — who went missing in southern Colorado on Sept. 11 were found Thursday. Some Wyoming hunters say it’s a grim reminder of the dangers weather and other backcountry hazards pose. (Saguache County Sheriff's Office) A lightning strike killed two elk hunters who went missing Sept. 11 in southern Colorado were found dead on Thursday, the coroner who investigated the case confirmed Monday afternoon.
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Lightning might have stuck a tree that Andrew Porter of Asheville, North Carolina, and Ian Stasko of Salt Lake City, Utah, both 25, were standing under, Conejos County, Colorado Coroner Richard Martin told Cowboy State Daily.
The bodies were found fully clothed and didn’t show any outward signs of trauma, Martin said.
He said determining the cause of death was “a pretty tough case,” because in most instances of fatal lightning strikes, there are entry and/or exit wounds from a massive bolt of electricity.
The tree that Porter and Stasko were apparently standing under also didn’t show any signs of a strike.
Martin said there’s no way of knowing for certain what transpired, but he surmised that the electricity from the bolt that struck the tree likely traveled through the tree, and into the ground.
And then the conductivity through the ground is probably what killed the two men, he said.
It’s likely that the fatal effect was that “all electrical functions” in their bodies were stopped instantly by the massive jolt coming from the lightning, he said.
Lightning A Serious Hazard
Lightning can be extremely dangerous, meteorologist Jan Curtis told Cowboy State Daily.
It doesn’t have to strike people directly to cause serious injury of death, he said.
If the ground is wet, in can conduct electricity from a nearby strike, said Curtis, who spent his career did meteorology and climatology for the U.S. Navy, the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska and the Natural Resources Conservation Service. He also was the Wyoming State Climatologist from 2001 to 2005.
Meteorologist Don Day of Cheyenne agreed that lightning should be taken seriously.
“Personally I think lightning danger is something people don't think enough about, especially the amount of thunderstorms we get in this region and how people like to be outside; mountains, lakes, golfing, etc.,” he said.
“Lightning does not follow many rules, you should have deep respect for its dangers and its unpredictability,” he added.
“While the odds of being struck by lightning is 1 in 1,222,000, the USA averages 43 deaths per year from lightning strikes. The four states with the most lightning related fatalities are Florida, Texas, Colorado, North Carolina and Alabama. A lot of these happen on golf courses,” Day said.
Storms were reported last week in the region of the Rio Grande National Forest in Colorado where Porter and Stasko were hunting.
‘Pray For Their Families’
Like countless other hunters throughout the region, Olin Machen of Cody has been following Porter and Stasko’s story closely.
He said he was saddened to learn about the official cause of their deaths. He urged hunters to be mindful about lightning, and to show respect and compassion for the men’s families.
“In general, lightning safety for hunters would be to stay below tree line when afternoon storms pop up. Drop down off the tops of ridges even if it’s only a short distance, stay away from big rock formations that lightning may travel horizontally across, and don’t have the metallic objects like a rifle or trekking poles on your body,” he said.
“For me, and as a result of this tragedy, I’ll add, stay as far away from my hunting buddy, but still in view, as possible. Perhaps we can all take a lesson away from this and take a moment to pray for their families,” he said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
Just curious. How do they know it was a lightning strike and not other dangers people face in the wild?
What a shame that Andrew and Ian never learned Rule Number One for Lightning Storms.
It's very tempting to seek shelter under a tree during a storm and fool yourself that "Lightning won't get me." After all, who wants to lie down on the ground in a gale downpour?
Good question................
They know by the obvious bodily remains.
Now if they died by lightning and were after dead, eaten by nature ... well
The other thing that's odd is that hunting boots usually have insulating thick rubber Vibram soles. Such shoe soles often provide some protection against electrocution.
Lightning struck a tall pine tree about 70 feet from our house a few years back. It was instantaneous FLASH BOOM with zero delay. The lighting traveled down the tree, blew a vertical strip of bark off on the way down, then went half way around the tree before continuing downward. The way it stripped the bark off down to the cambium was amazing. I lost some electronics in the house from that.
Albuquerque Journal reported the autopsy results today. I know a guy who hunted that area android lightning was a real threat, especially higher up.
As a kid, we had a terrible storm come through on the farm, and there was a ‘strike’ within a mile of the house. Next morning, my dad and I go out....dozen cows laid out....some 30 ft from the tree...dead. Partial split for the tree itself.
Farm insurance was in place....paid roughly 80-percent of value. But by the time you hire a dozer to dig a pit for them...most of the money is used up.
I was nearly hit by lightning. It was earth shaking, no joke. RIP
They were cooked alright...
Can't these people count??
Back in the late ‘60s, I had a summer job working as a lifeguard at an apartment house pool in downtown Washington, D.C. It was a great job in that no one ever visited the pool during the weekdays until after 5 pm, so I had lots of time to myself to read long Russian novels & etc. One afternoon, I was watching a thunderstorm with lightning hitting around the Catholic Shrine on a hill miles away in N.E. section of the city. I remember just having the thought that lightning never seems to stirk nearby, when a tremendous bolt struck the roof of the building right in front of me across the street. The flash and boom were instantaneous, and the bolt was a wide a car with a pink core. The next thing I knew was that I was driving in my car several blocks away, still in my swimsuit. I had apparently run down the stairwell ten stories to the basement garage, got in my car, and drove away in a literal blind panic.
We used to have an a frame cabin in Utah. Once, when my wife was painting upstairs there was a lightning strike about 1/4 of a mile away. A spark jumped several inches from a large bolt in the roof joists to the paint brush her hand. The bolt was in the joists and not otherwise connected to any other metal. Lightning includes a massive electromatic force collapse that can induce currents at a fair distance. Very dangerous.
Quite an experience.
Talk about wrong place, wrong time... It doesn’t getting any more wrong than this.
Never take shelter underneath a tree in a storm............
A month ago, I had a flat in a fierce thunderstorm in the country. Got out to look at it quickly and hopped back in truck. A few minutes later a bolt came down and killed a horse I was watching in the field about 40 feet from me. Knocked it over dead and sent seven others away in flight across the field. I think it never knew what hit it. Later, the owner came out and we talked. The horse was over 30 years old and had had a good life. Then, a clean death.
Can't these people count??
They’re not qualified to do anything other than pretend to be “journalists.” It’s no wonder they can’t even count.
My last clinical rotation in medical school was on Mackinac Island in Michigan. Mother, Father, and daughter were riding bikes around the perimeter of the island when a big thunderstorm blew In from the Straight of Mackinac. They made the mistake of sheltering under a large tree. When I arrived in the ambulance Father was lying dead on the ground with a one inch diameter smoking entry wound on his right temple and a matching exit wound on the bottom of his right foot and a smoking hole in the ground where he had been standing. Mother and Daughter were knocked to the ground and were in shock. I looked at that man and my thought was “Geez buddy, God really wanted you dead!”
What Native Americans call a “Good Death”..............meaning totally ‘Natural’............
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