Found Deceased CO - Andrew Porter & Ian Stasko, both 25, Missing while hunting San Juan Wilderness Area CO. 9/13/25. Vehicle Found.

[Teche]

Did the hunters have the rifles/guns with them?

 

[FoxxTraxx]

Did the hunters have the rifles/guns with them?

That's a good question which has not been addressed as far as I know. It's come up on a lot of social media threads too.

In post #8 on this thread is a news story of 2 hunters who claim to have seen Andrew and Ian on the morning of 9/12. They claimed the 2 were carrying bows & arrows - not firearms.

Elk in that area weigh about 750 lbs. (some up to 1,000 lbs) which would be hard to take down with an arrow.
For what it's worth, some people have cast doubt on that story for a variety of reasons.

 

[Cedars]

That's a good question which has not been addressed as far as I know. It's come up on a lot of social media threads too.

In post #8 on this thread is a news story of 2 hunters who claim to have seen Andrew and Ian on the morning of 9/12. They claimed the 2 were carrying bows & arrows - not firearms.

Elk in that area weigh about 750 lbs. (some up to 1,000 lbs) which would be hard to take down with an arrow.
For what it's worth, some people have cast doubt on that story for a variety of reasons.

The article discusses they were bow hunting, according to their social media. Below the jump:

Hunters showed 'no obvious signs of trauma' when found dead in Colorado mountains

Andrew Porter and Ian Stasko, both 25, disappeared last week in Conejos County. A nasty storm hit the area where they disappeared.

www.11alive.com

 

[Black Diamond]

Did the hunters have the rifles/guns with them?

Bow and arrows. It’s currently archery Elk season out west. Rifle Elk seasons don't start until October.

 

[FoxxTraxx]

Elk hunters found dead in Colorado were killed by lightning, coroner says

Both men were killed by lightning, but were not directly struck, Conejos County Coroner Richard Martin said.
“A lightning strike to the ground took them in an instant,” Bridget Murphy, Porter’s fiancée, wrote Monday in an update on social media. “They didn’t do anything wrong, they didn’t feel fear or pain.”
Martin said the hunters had no significant injuries or burn marks, which made determining the cause of death difficult.

News-09/22/25 Andrew Porter and Ian Stasko killed by lightning

They most likely died instantly. Still a terrible way to die. May they rest in peace.

 

[TMich6811]

Wow

 

[Knox]

Elk hunters found dead in Colorado were killed by lightning, coroner says

Both men were killed by lightning, but were not directly struck, Conejos County Coroner Richard Martin said.
“A lightning strike to the ground took them in an instant,” Bridget Murphy, Porter’s fiancée, wrote Monday in an update on social media. “They didn’t do anything wrong, they didn’t feel fear or pain.”
Martin said the hunters had no significant injuries or burn marks, which made determining the cause of death difficult.

News-09/22/25 Andrew Porter and Ian Stasko killed by lightning

They most likely died instantly. Still a terrible way to die. May they rest in peace.

Wow I didn’t expect that to be the COD. I wonder if they had been trying to take shelter under the tree?

 

[meanmaryjean]

Tragic

 

[Jacques-Faulkner]

Did the autopsies reveal the possibility of a lightning strike ...?

 

[Black Diamond]

Poor guys. The only preparation to avoid the hazard of lightning is to not be out there at all. Not a good option; can’t live in a bubble. It’s not much of a consolation, but we can feel a little better that they didn’t suffer through hours of shivering to death in a panic, and also that they likely died simultaneously and neither had to witness the other pass.

 

[Black Diamond]

Just plain bad luck. Here are the stats from NOAA

How Dangerous is Lightning?

 

[FoxxTraxx]

Did the autopsies reveal the possibility of a lightning strike ...?

This story has a few more details:

Coroner: Lightning Strike Killed Elk Hunters Found Dead In Colorado​

[H] 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.

Cowboy State Daily 9/22/25 Deadly Lightning Strike Possible Explanation

That would also explain why their electronic devices stopped working. They almost certainly got damaged too.

 

[airportwoman]

If that is what happened, they never felt anything.

 

[Twistinginthewind]

Elk hunters found dead in Colorado were killed by lightning, coroner says

Both men were killed by lightning, but were not directly struck, Conejos County Coroner Richard Martin said.
“A lightning strike to the ground took them in an instant,” Bridget Murphy, Porter’s fiancée, wrote Monday in an update on social media. “They didn’t do anything wrong, they didn’t feel fear or pain.”
Martin said the hunters had no significant injuries or burn marks, which made determining the cause of death difficult.

News-09/22/25 Andrew Porter and Ian Stasko killed by lightning

They most likely died instantly. Still a terrible way to die. May they rest in peace.

That makes sense to me, a lightning strike, since they were found lying on the ground near each other in an openish area, IIRC, with no signs of a struggle or injuries. I thought something sudden must have taken them at the same time.

RIP Andrew & Ian <3

 

[Emerald1328]

Lightning being the cause of death was shocking to hear. I had a hard time wrapping my mind around how 2 people couple be struck at the same time, but I guess it does happen.

Two teens were struck and killed in Georgia earlier this year, and a family of 3 were struck and injured earlier this year in Florida. Both incidents happened in July.

2 people die after being struck by lightning while fishing

Two people died after being struck by lightning while fishing.

www.kolotv.com

'This is one of the hardest things we've faced': Family of 3 struck by lightning on St. Augustine Pier

Phillip, Diana and Jayme Schuyler were struck by lightning Saturday. Phillip, in his 80s, took the full force of the strike, and remains in the ICU.

www.firstcoastnews.com

 

[Quill]

Lightning being the cause of death was shocking to hear. I had a hard time wrapping my mind around how 2 people couple be struck at the same time, but I guess it does happen.

Two teens were struck and killed in Georgia earlier this year, and a family of 3 were struck and injured earlier this year in Florida. Both incidents happened in July.

2 people die after being struck by lightning while fishing

Two people died after being struck by lightning while fishing.

www.kolotv.com

'This is one of the hardest things we've faced': Family of 3 struck by lightning on St. Augustine Pier

Phillip, Diana and Jayme Schuyler were struck by lightning Saturday. Phillip, in his 80s, took the full force of the strike, and remains in the ICU.

www.firstcoastnews.com

Very common when lightning travels through the ground. The ground current can strike multiples at once. Growing up with a dad who raised livestock we knew this. It's a horrible tragedy.

 

[Twistinginthewind]

That lightning doesn't just strike in one spot always, like onto a tree or one person or animal and can "charge the field" or an entire area of ground is not common knowledge, I think.

It's only a "thing" people who are in the know in that kind of situation take precautions for in most cases, but they can't always predict like with animals at pasture (as @Emerald1328 posted about) or people out in the field playing sports or swimming in pools, etc.

I witnessed lightning striking an entire back yard causing vitrification or glassification of huge patches of soil -- it melts the minerals in the soil and turns it into glass -- a relative of mine there at the time has several 3 ft round chunks of that "dirty" glass.

I have a friend who sadly lost 3 family members during a sudden lightning storm while they were playing sports on a sunny day in a field that very quickly became stormy, and 5 others playing with them were not killed because they were 20 feet away from where it struck and energized the soil in the area the other 3 were standing on.

It was an unavoidable tragedy for these two young men up there hunting and well prepared for the environment and experienced, that they were walking along in an area that was struck by lightning.

The only thing that is sadly not of any help here, is that lightning never strikes twice in the same place. It won't go down and strike the glassified soil that is no longer full of fresh soil or other material like a tree or power line, because it is already burnt through and won't take the charge, similar to a wildfire not going to an already burned through area with not much fuel left.

I'm so very sorry for them and their loved ones they were in the wrong spot up there at the wrong time just doing something they enjoyed.

MOO