Two elk hunters were killed by lightning in Colorado earlier this month, authorities have confirmed. Andrew Porter and Ian Stasko, both 25, were hunting in the Rio Grande National Forest in southern Colorado when a storm hit the area on 12 September. They stopped making contact, and search-and-rescue crews found their bodies a week later.
The Conejo County coroner, Richard Martin, said autopsies revealed that lightning struck the pair as they stood under a large tree. The lightning left slight burns and likely killed them instantly. 'That kind of death is just instant. It’s like you’re alive and now you’re not,' Martin told the Colorado Sun.
Bridget Murphy, Porter’s fiancée, confirmed the cause of death in a social media post, describing him as an 'experienced outdoorsman, who was in the wrong spot at the wrong time'. She wrote that the lightning 'took them in an instant' and that they 'didn’t feel fear or pain'.
According to the National Weather Service, lightning causes an average of two deaths and 12 injuries per year in Colorado. The incident has been described as a 'horrific act of nature' by Murphy, who added that the two were 'doing what they loved, without fear'.
