Share and Follow
Andrew Porter and Ian Stasko, both 25, disappeared last week. A nasty storm hit the area where they disappeared.
CONEJOS COUNTY, Colo. — The Conejos County (Colorado) coroner on Friday two hunters found dead this week in the San Juans showed no obvious signs of trauma.
An autopsy, expected to be done in El Paso County Monday, should reveal more about what caused the deaths of Andrew Porter and Ian Stasko.
The pair, both from out of state and 25 years old, set out from the Rio del los Pinos trailhead last week. GPS coordinates obtained from a Garmin InReach satellite communication device pinpoint where the two went between Sept. 7 and Sept 11.
The two spent the night at the trailhead on Sept. 7 and set out, on foot, to a campsite roughly two miles north. There, GPS data says, they spent the next three days at that location until they left the morning of Sept. 11.
That morning, they headed south to the trailhead and their car. 9NEWS Senior Meteorologist Chris Bianchi says rain moved into the area that same day.
It appears the two spent the night of Sept. 11 in their car and set out again the next morning.
The Garmin did not communicate their whereabouts that day. Bianchi said the immediate area was hit hard by a storm around 4 p.m. Sept. 12. Temperatures quickly dipped into the 30s and, later, into the 20s as heavy rain – and eventually snow – fell on the area.
Wind gusts reached 40 to 50 mph, and there was also lightning in the area, Bianchi said.
The weather remained stormy well into Sept. 13 before finally clearing on Sept. 14, which was Sunday.
The two were expected to leave the area Monday before flying home – Porter to North Carolina and Stasko to Utah – on Tuesday.
By Wednesday, dozens of search teams assembled in the area to look for the pair. They were ultimately found roughly two miles away from the trailhead Thursday morning.
The two, according to numerous Facebook posts, were carrying phones, the Garmin, bows, knives, game bags, light hunting gear and clothing.
The area the two were found in is quite remote and has an elevation of at least 10,000 feet. The location the two camped in sits at roughly 11,400 feet.
