THE mystery surrounding the deaths of two men who vanished while hunting for elk has tragically been solved.
Andrew Porter and Ian Stasko, both 25, were trekking in the Colorado wilderness before they suddenly disappeared from the radar on September 11.
Two elk hunters were found dead after vanishing on a trip[/caption]
The disappearance of the two friends sparked a search effort[/caption]
This sparked a week-long search before they were found dead.
Now, coroners have revealed how the pair died.
They were killed by a lightning bolt, as reported by The Colorado Sun.
Richard Martin, the Conejos County Coroner, said the pair had burns on their bodies.
They were found below a tree – located around two miles from the Rio de los Pinos trailhead.
Martin suspects Porter and Stasko were killed instantly.
“It’s like you’re alive and now you’re not,” he added.
“Just that quick. Split second.”
Autopsies were conducted on both of their bodies and no signs of foul play were spotted.
The hunters didn’t have any signs of injuries.
They are believed to have gotten into difficulty on September 11 when their satellite device stopped working, per a GoFundMe post.
Porter, from North Carolina, shared his location with his fiancée, Bridget Murphy, at around 3:30pm that day. His pal, Stasko, was from Salt Lake City, Utah.
The ping which came from his Garmin device came from a location close to Stasko’s car.
The friends were supposed to check in every 24 hours.
What causes lightning?
Here’s everything you need to know…
- Lightning is a big flash or bolt of electricity caused by a thunderstorm
- They’re thought to kill between 75 to 100 unlucky souls every year
- Strikes are actually formed by frozen raindrops in the sky
- Within a thunderclap, bits of ice bump into one another, forming an electrical charge
- After a while, the whole cloud fills up with electrical charges
- These split into negatively charged electrons at the bottom of the cloud and positively charged protons at the top
- Eventually, the cloud discharges by sending a bolt of current to the ground
Frequent pings had been logged on September 9 and 10.
Family members suspected the pals may have slept in Stasko’s car that night due to the wet weather.
Hunting gear was not found inside the car and wet clothes were found.
TRAGIC END
Bridget said there was a confirmed sighting of the pair by the car on the morning of September 12.
The duo were supposed to finish hunting on September 16 and scheduled to return home the following day.
In another post, Bridget said her partner was in the “wrong spot at the wrong time.”
After the friends were confirmed dead, Bridget penned a tribute to her fiancé.
My heart is split in half. I am no longer whole,” she wrote on Facebook.
“I don’t know how to do life without you Andrew. You are my all. 6.5 years was not enough with you.
“We had so many plans left unfinished.
“I’m angry at that mountain, angry at the ruthless storms that came in and took my future with Andrew far too soon.”
She labeled the storm as a “bizarre horrific act of nature.”
Bridget described her fiancé as brave and carefree and someone who was “one of a kind.”
“Andrew was not just a fiancé and a dog dad, but a twin, a brother, a son, a nephew, a grandson, a friend. I don’t know why this happened,” she said.
“I don’t know why he was taken from us so soon.
“I love you Andrew, so hard I can’t breathe. I will always love you, forever. Every day I will miss you.
“Every day I will think of what you’d be doing. I won’t let you down.”
Between 2006 and 2021, there were 444 lightning strike deaths in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Men are four times more likely than females to be struck by lightning.
The pair were experienced hunters[/caption]
Helicopters pictured at the scene[/caption]
They were hunting in the Colorado wilderness before their deaths[/caption]
