https://people.com/hunter-found-dead-colorado-wilderness-where-2-men-fatally-struck-lightning-11820377

Search teams had to wait until the next morning to retrieve the man’s body

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Sam Gillette

Published on September 29, 2025 01:26PM EDT

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NEED TO KNOW

• A man has died in the southern Colorado wilderness just over a week after two elk hunters were found dead following a lightning strike
• Officials received a call for help from a group of hunters as “CPR was in progress” on Sept. 26
• The 54-year-old man’s body had to be recovered the next day because of “hazardous nighttime conditions”

Just over a week after two missing hunters were found dead after being struck by lightning, a third man died in the same area of southern Colorado, authorities said.

On Friday, Sept. 26, around 11:23 p.m. local time, officials got a call for help from a group of hunters located in a “remote” section of the South San Juan Wilderness, the southeastern portion of the San Juan Mountain Range, the Conejos County Sheriff’s Office said in a release. Authorities were told that “CPR was in progress.” 

When responders from the Conejos County Search and Rescue Team arrived, they found that the hunter had died, the sheriff’s office said. However, due to “hazardous nighttime conditions,” it wasn’t safe to conduct a recovery mission with a helicopter, they said.

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By the first light of the next morning, search teams and an air ambulance went back to the command post and were able to recover the body of the victim, a 54-year-old man from Tennessee. Officials said they won’t be releasing the hunter’s name until his family is notified. 

The Conejos County Sheriff’s Office had no further information to add, and the El Paso County Coroner’s Office did not immediately respond when contacted by PEOPLE.

His death came two weeks after 25-year-old hunters Andrew Porter and Ian Stasko first went missing while elk hunting in the Rio Grande National Forest, prompting a search by the sheriff’s office on Saturday, Sept. 13. Their bodies were found days later, two miles from the Rio de Los Pinos Trailhead on Thursday, Sept. 18.

The Conejos County Coroner Richard Martin previously confirmed to PEOPLE that the men died after being struck by lightning.

Despite the devastating outcome, their grieving family members were grateful to have their loved ones home with them again.

“They didn’t do anything wrong, they didn’t feel fear or pain,” wrote Porter’s fiancée, Bridget Murphy, on social media the day he was found and said that the two accomplished hunters were seemingly attempting to get back to their car when the storm blew through on Sept. 12. 

“It was out of everyone’s hands, and I am so grateful we found them so they can be at peace,” Murphy continued. “He was an experienced outdoorsman who was in the wrong spot at the wrong time.” 

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The Rio Grande National Forest — which has four wilderness areas, including South San Juan — is made up of 1.86 million acres and is bordered on the west by the Continental Divide, according to the National Forest Foundation. 

“​​Ages of volcanic activity followed by the carving of glaciers left the rough, imposing terrain of the remote South San Juan Wilderness, an area characterized by steep slopes above wide U-shaped valleys cut deeper by eroding streams,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service writes of the region. “You’ll find high peaks and cliffs, as well as jagged pinnacles and ragged ridges, making travel difficult. Elevations rise as high as 13,300 feet.” 

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Conejos County Sheriff Garth Crowther reminded people who enter “the wilderness to please be cautious and well-prepared for the challenges of the backcountry.”