A third hunter has died in Conejos County, the same area of the southern Colorado wilderness where two hunters were killed by lightning earlier this month.
The Conejos County Sheriff’s Office said a 54-year-old man from Tennessee died either late Friday or early Saturday. A group of hunters called for help just before 11:30 p.m. Friday in a “remote area” in the South San Juan Wilderness, telling the sheriff’s office that CPR was being performed.
By the time a search and rescue team arrived at the scene, the man had died, the sheriff’s office said. A helicopter recovery wasn’t immediately possible “due to hazardous nighttime conditions” but was done early Saturday morning.
The man’s cause of death was not immediately known Saturday night, but the sheriff’s office said there was “no threat to the hunting public or those observing fall colors in the area.”
The El Paso County Coroner will perform an autopsy. The victim’s name has not been released.
Two out-of-state elk hunters – Andrew Porter of North Carolina and Ian Stasko of Utah, both 25 years old – were found dead in a separate incident Sept. 18 in Conejos County just a few miles from the Colorado-New Mexico border. The two hunters had last been heard from a week earlier, and it was later determined they died from a lightning strike.
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In Jackson County near the state's northern border, another hunter – a 57-year-old Illinois man – was rescued after spending two days in wintry conditions in the Rawah Wilderness.