{"id":15760,"date":"2025-10-22T09:07:40","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T17:07:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/?p=15760"},"modified":"2025-10-22T09:07:40","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T17:07:40","slug":"two-hunters-killed-by-lightning-in-colorado-the-lightning-was-unharmed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/2025\/10\/22\/two-hunters-killed-by-lightning-in-colorado-the-lightning-was-unharmed\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Hunters Killed by Lightning in Colorado (The Lightning was unharmed)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"svelte-1sntxl4\"><span class=\"svelte-1sntxl4\"><a href=\"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2025_hunters.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-15761\" src=\"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2025_hunters-300x197.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"197\" srcset=\"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2025_hunters-300x197.jpg 300w, https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2025_hunters.jpg 742w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Two elk hunters,\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"qa-highlight svelte-1sntxl4\"><span class=\"svelte-1sntxl4\">Andrew Porter and Ian Stasko<\/span><\/span><span class=\"svelte-1sntxl4\">, both 25, were confirmed to have been killed by a lightning strike while hunting in the Rio Grande National Forest near the Colorado-New Mexico border in early September 2025.<\/span>\u00a0<span class=\"svelte-1sntxl4\">The hunters were found dead after a nearly weeklong search effort, with authorities confirming the cause of death based on findings from Conejos County Coroner Richard Martin, who noted slight burns consistent with a lightning strike and described the deaths as instantaneous.<\/span>\u00a0<span class=\"svelte-1sntxl4\">Their fianc\u00e9e, Bridget Murphy, confirmed the cause of death in a social media post, stating they were caught in a storm on September 12 while attempting to return to their vehicle.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul class=\"svelte-1sntxl4\">\n<li class=\"svelte-1sntxl4\">\n<p class=\"svelte-1sntxl4\"><span class=\"svelte-1sntxl4\">The hunters were experienced outdoorsmen who went missing on September 12, 2025, during a storm.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"svelte-1sntxl4\">\n<p class=\"svelte-1sntxl4\"><span class=\"svelte-1sntxl4\">Their bodies were discovered below a tree, with only a few minor burns, indicating a lightning strike.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"svelte-1sntxl4\">\n<p class=\"svelte-1sntxl4\"><span class=\"svelte-1sntxl4\">The coroner stated the deaths were likely instantaneous, with no time for fear or pain.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"svelte-1sntxl4\">\n<p class=\"svelte-1sntxl4\"><span class=\"svelte-1sntxl4\">The incident occurred in the Rio Grande National Forest, southwest of Monte Vista, Colorado.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two elk hunters,\u00a0Andrew Porter and Ian Stasko, both 25, were confirmed to have been killed by a lightning strike while hunting in the Rio Grande National Forest near the Colorado-New Mexico border in early September 2025.\u00a0The hunters were found dead after a nearly weeklong search effort, with authorities confirming the cause of death based on &hellip; <\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link btn\" href=\"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/2025\/10\/22\/two-hunters-killed-by-lightning-in-colorado-the-lightning-was-unharmed\/\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15761,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15760"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15760"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15762,"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15760\/revisions\/15762"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}