A lightning strike has been ruled the preliminary cause of death for the two hunters found dead in Colorado.
Conejos County Coroner Richard Martin has given his findings to multiple media outlets. He says Andrew Porter and Ian Stasko’s “[k]ind of death is just instant.”
“It’s like you’re alive, and now you’re not,” Martin told The Colorado Sun. “Just that quick. Split second.”
Martin said the men, both 25, were found under a tree with slight burns on their bodies.
A 17-year-old hunter in Louisiana was killed over the weekend by an apparent lightning strike, according to officials in Union Parish. Officials say first responders found Colton Gauge Honeycutt, of Monroe, deceased in a deer stand sometime after 8:30 p.m. Saturday. He’d been hunting in the woods near the small community of Weldon, and family members had contacted the sheriff’s office after he failed to return home after dusk.
“Investigators believe Honeycutt was killed by a lightning strike when thunderstorms moved through the area, just before sunset Saturday evening,” the UPSO said in a statement, noting that the incident is still under investigation.
