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Missing elk hunters in Southern Colorado

4,090 Views | 37 Replies | Last: 42 min ago by txaggie02
txaggie02
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9:56a, 9/17/25
AG
I've been following this for a couple days and didn't see anything posted here. The situation is not good. The hunters, both in their mid-20s, had a Garmin system on them, but there hasn't been a response since last Thursday. Authorities were notified on Saturday and the hunters' vehicle with backpacks and camping gear was located at the trail head. Supposedly, there was really bad weather (cold, lightning, rain, and heavy fog) during the latter part of last week in the area.

https://www.kktv.com/2025/09/16/massive-search-underway-missing-hunters-southern-colorado/

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=122240174726163661&set=a.122112304394163661&type=3&ref=embed_post



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Hoyt Ag
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10:04a, 9/17/25
AG
Not a good situation. The fact that their stuff was at the trailhead worries me. I'm on the S&R team for our county and I think we will be heading down there to help search. My employer will love that since I have been gone the last 3 weeks on vacation.
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Furlock Bones
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In reply to txaggie02 • 10:21a, 9/17/25
AG
i saw this yesterday. terrible stuff.
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matthewj042
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10:34a, 9/17/25
AG
Sounds like that unit also has a higher than normal crime rate at trail heads like breaking into vehicles while hunters are out. Hopefully they didn't have an unexpected altercation.
matthewj042@gmail.com
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oh no
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10:35a, 9/17/25
AG
not a good sign their gear was all still in the vehicle at the trailhead. T&P.
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OnlyForNow
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11:19a, 9/17/25
AG
Saw this yesterday, so what are y'alls thoughts? They got jumped/robbed and killed?

Seems crazy that the offenders wouldn't just take all their stuff, except maybe the truck.
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oh no
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11:34a, 9/17/25
AG
the fiance of one of them claims they're both very able-bodied fit outdoorsmen that had been planning this location for a long time. you'd think if there was an accident or something happened with one of them, the other would have been able to seek help. and if it was a robbery, their gear would be gone. they were out there to hunt, so they had defense weaponry in case of wildlife encounters like bear. hope they find them soon.
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txaggie02
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11:44a, 9/17/25
AG
I'm seeing on another site (Rokslide), where they are thinking that the guys potentially saw/heard elk, took a very limited amount of gear from the vehicle thinking it would be a quick/short hunt, and went after them. Then potentially got caught up in the storm further away from the vehicle than expected and lost since the Garmin was left in the truck. Another idea is that they took a fall down a revine or even lightning strike, given the storms. Hard to believe 2 of them would fall. Covering up the murder of two fit people at a trail head and next to the vehicle would be challenging. You would think there would be at least some signs of foul play. Whatever the situation, I highly doubt these guys just suddenly show up today, which is supposed to be their scheduled last day of the hunt. With 6 days of no contact or gear, I've got a bad feeling these guys ran into some serious adversity at one point that they couldn't get out of.
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AggieJames09
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11:45a, 9/17/25
AG
This is very strange to me… why is all gear in truck, neither has an iPhone with new satellite message feature or a Garmin. One going missing happens, but both with no gear… hope they are found asap
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oh no
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11:54a, 9/17/25
AG
accident with one -i.e. fall into a ravine, broken bones, etc. - even if the other tries to help for a while, you'd think he'll give up and seek help eventually if he can't get them back out to the trailhead... and both falling and becoming incapacitated seems pretty unlikely, but perhaps with the storms they both suffered an accident together.
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Deerdude
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11:59a, 9/17/25
Crazy to think in today's world that hunters are anywhere without redundant comms.
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ttha_aggie_09
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In reply to Deerdude • 12:12p, 9/17/25
AG
Mid 20s guys… I thought I was invincible at that age and didn't need redundancy
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shaynew1
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12:24p, 9/17/25
AG
I've definitely been in a situation where I just jumped out to run right over there and ended up much farther out without all my gear and puffy or rain jacket.
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Hoyt Ag
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In reply to txaggie02 • 12:29p, 9/17/25
AG
txaggie02 said:
I'm seeing on another site (Rokslide), where they are thinking that the guys potentially saw/heard elk, took a very limited amount of gear from the vehicle thinking it would be a quick/short hunt, and went after them. Then potentially got caught up in the storm further away from the vehicle than expected and lost since the Garmin was left in the truck. Another idea is that they took a fall down a revine or even lightning strike, given the storms. Hard to believe 2 of them would fall. Covering up the murder of two fit people at a trail head and next to the vehicle would be challenging. You would think there would be at least some signs of foul play. Whatever the situation, I highly doubt these guys just suddenly show up today, which is supposed to be their scheduled last day of the hunt. With 6 days of no contact or gear, I've got a bad feeling these guys ran into some serious adversity at one point that they couldn't get out of.

Never do this. Always take your pack, there is a reason you have it and packed it.
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Furlock Bones
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In reply to txaggie02 • 12:39p, 9/17/25
AG
txaggie02 said:
I'm seeing on another site (Rokslide), where they are thinking that the guys potentially saw/heard elk, took a very limited amount of gear from the vehicle thinking it would be a quick/short hunt, and went after them. Then potentially got caught up in the storm further away from the vehicle than expected and lost since the Garmin was left in the truck. Another idea is that they took a fall down a revine or even lightning strike, given the storms. Hard to believe 2 of them would fall. Covering up the murder of two fit people at a trail head and next to the vehicle would be challenging. You would think there would be at least some signs of foul play. Whatever the situation, I highly doubt these guys just suddenly show up today, which is supposed to be their scheduled last day of the hunt. With 6 days of no contact or gear, I've got a bad feeling these guys ran into some serious adversity at one point that they couldn't get out of.

my thought since i first read the information is that left the truck expecting a short hike.

"don't need much. let's just go get this thing. we'll be back to the truck for what we need."

kind of like those toyota folks that didn't put on their seatbelts and died going down an "easy dirt road". complacency kills.
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harge57
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12:53p, 9/17/25
AG
Unfortunately they have been missing too long at this point to have much hope. The oddest thing to me is that both of them are missing. I just can't imagine that if an accident did occur one could not go get help or get out. The lightning strike theory makes the most sense to me right now.

I will say just this past week I was in WY for an elk hunt with my brother. We ended up chasing some elk across a very nasty steep river crossing. On the way back across that river I ended up picking a spot and taking off my boots and walking across and then my brother didn't want to do that so he went down the river to look for another spot to cross. I got across and then spent some time putting back on my boots, filtering some water, and getting things in order. I was thinking he would head my way once he crossed, but he never showed. I then tried to head his way, but then realized I could not get down that direction on the river. I had to hike up nearly 100 ft. before I could get that direction and we were able to locate each other with elk calls, but it was a reminder that it sure could turn sour quick. I was worried for a minute he had an issue crossing the river or maybe double backed the other direction and I did not see him. We both could have managed to get back out on our own, but you gotta be careful. I had an inreach with me the whole time, but ended up never even turning it on which I could have used to message his inreach.
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MouthBQ98
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1:01p, 9/17/25
AG
I was camping north of Durango last week and there were some pretty intense localized thunderstorms that came through starting later in the week. Quite a bit of lightning with a few. Sent us running for cover a couple of times. The temps were cool at night at altitude but always well above freezing still and the rain wasn't lasting or very heavy, it came and went with time to dry out and warm up between. Daytime temps were pleasant to warm. It did get notably colder on Friday night, with more longer rain periods.

Flash flood? Lightning strike? Rock fall? Tree fall?

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CS78
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In reply to Deerdude • 1:11p, 9/17/25
Deerdude said:
Crazy to think in today's world that hunters are anywhere without redundant comms.


There's also a huge over reliance in technology with the young crowd. I lease my small property out for deer some. Mostly to young guys because it's cheap. Most of them can't find their way in or out of the gate without OnX. It's consistently bad. Like get lost tracking a deer 200 yards kind of bad.

If these guys are used to relying on tech for navigation, and didn't have it on them or a battery died, it might not have taken much to get hopelessly lost.
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Deerdude
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1:58p, 9/17/25
Yea I'm not real experienced with backcountry hunts but carry a small pack regardless. Solar panel and battery power pack standard as well as a few survival items.then again I'm 66 and vaguely remember what it was like when I was bulletproof.
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txaggie02
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2:22p, 9/17/25
AG
Some more information released in this article that was just posted...

https://coloradosun.com/2025/09/17/search-underway-for-missing-elk-hunters-rio-grande-national-forest/

The last ping came from near Stasko's car, which was parked at the trailhead. But Murphy said she believes she has pieced together what might have happened that evening, based on gear police found in the car when law enforcement officials broke into it after she and Porter's mother called the Conejos County Sheriff's Office and the local Colorado Parks and Wildlife game warden Friday evening.

Officials found wet clothes in the car, which told Murphy the men had been in inclement weather and had come back to change, likely when they sent their location Thursday. But none of the gear Porter would need to hunt, harvest or pack out an elk was in the car, which told her they'd likely gone back out hunting.

"We didn't find his bow, his butchering knives, his game bags or binoculars, things he would take with him to go kill an elk with the hope that they could start packing it out to the car that night," she said. But when she had hunted with the men before, she said they'd come back to the car and slept in it.

She isn't sure what "backups" the men took with them, including a tent, she added.

But Thursday night, when she believes they were out, the weather turned inclement, with "bad, cold storms and fog that came in quickly and continuously until Sunday morning," she said. "So if they were fine, he would have come back to the car, and if his Garmin was dead he would have charged it, and he would have sent me one message. But no, that's not the case."
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OnlyForNow
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In reply to CS78 • 2:28p, 9/17/25
AG
If you end up needing to change that situation, my business partner would 100% be all about talking to you (we're both Ags), he just wants to get out from under his father in law and take his kids hunting, not a trophy shooter by any strech.
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FunkyTownAg
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2:33p, 9/17/25
AG
I fish up there all the time. It's a very popular recreational area. I highly doubt foul play would go unnoticed
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EriktheRed
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In reply to FunkyTownAg • 2:38p, 9/17/25
AG
FunkyTownAg said:
I fish up there all the time. It's a very popular recreational area. I highly doubt foul play would go unnoticed

I was just having this conversation with someone. there are people all over that area, esp in hunting season. It is a very popular area. And also not a huge area unless you come out of that bowl and get up on top, which is not something you would do on a short, impromptu hunt

You fish the los pinos? If we don't know each other, we should.
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BlueSmoke
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3:10p, 9/17/25
I have to wonder if as stated, they ventured out, got on the trail away from their supplies and at distance, and one of them got seriously hurt and the other stayed with him and then bad weather rolled in.

Just awful
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LRHF
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4:11p, 9/17/25
AG
When I was a young teenager, went hunting with dad. We split up to hunt a small area before heading back to camp (via truck). During this short interval, some snow squalls came through and I was 100% lost for a while. I learned A very important lesson this day…

Fast forward 30 years and I was Hunting the South San Juan Wilderness solo. Friends dropped me off on horseback but I had to walk out through some VERY rough country. Spotted some elk and dumped by heavy pack after marking with my GPS. After the hunt was over, noticed some weather rolling in. Found my pack about 5 minutes before my self imposed deadline to get off the mtn.

Friend and I did A backpack hunt in the Weminuche many moons ago. We planned to go ultralight and use a tarp tent. I was Living in Farmington, NM and my friend came from Houston. The morning we left, we decided to break out the sewing machine and add a flap to the tarp tent. Glad we did, a massive storm slammed the area and it snowed for 5 days on and off! Had to make a fire each morning just to thaw our boots to go hunting! During that storm, some guys from So. America went backpacking in the same region and I'm pretty sure they never found them.

I'm currently in Ridgeway, CO on a resupply mission while in the middle of a solo hunt. I always have fire on me and now carry a Garmin In Reach everywhere I go (at least solo). The storm they his these guys hit my area as well. My 13 yo self reminds my 51 yo self of what I learned Many moons ago and I just won't deviate from my lessons learned! Based on the timeline, I'm very concerned this could become a recovery mission.

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shiftyandquick
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10:45p, 9/17/25


Quote:
According to an update posted to Facebook by Porter's fiance, Bridget Murphy, on Wednesday afternoon, other hunters spotted the two men at 10 a.m. Friday at the Spruce Hole Trailhead. The missing hunters reportedly told the other hunters they'd seen a big bull and were heading back out to hunt. Here are additional details that have been made public as of Wednesday:

https://www.outdoorlife.com/survival/elk-hunters-missing-colorado-search/
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FunkyTownAg
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In reply to EriktheRed • 10:48p, 9/17/25
AG
I am in Salida and have to go to New Mexico quite a bit for work. The Los Pinos is a great detour. Always down to tag up and fish with other Ags. Can always tag up and get LRHF to paddle us around the SJ
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JFABNRGR
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8:51a
AG
Bewtween the articles it says storms were Thursday night and wet clothes found but other hunters saw Friday morning and truck moved Friday morning.

Was there more bad weather Friday?

Other than 10K elevation terrain looks fairly mild compared to other mtn areas.

No bow in truck so they should be out in the woods.
“You can resolve to live your life with integrity. Let your credo be this: Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me.”
- Alexander Solzhenitsyn
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Windy City Ag
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In reply to harge57 • 9:39a
AG
Quote:
I had to hike up nearly 100 ft. before I could get that direction and we were able to locate each other with elk calls, but it was a reminder that it sure could turn sour quick.


This reminds me of the Geraldine Lagway story from a ways back. She was a fairly experienced hiker who wandered off a remote section of the Appalachian Trail in Maine to hit the bathroom mother nature style. She somehow got turned around trying to go the 70 yards back and ended up wandering in circles for 26 days trying to find a road or trail before succumbing to exposure.

The post mortem of the search for her was crazy. Search aircraft, the state police, national park rangers and fire departments all combined for a week long massive dragnet for her but came up with nothing. High winds and heavy rains destroyed most of her trackable marks. Three different K9 units came within 100 yards of her camp where she was laying after prolonged exposure but did not pick up her scent.

Her camp and body was found by a forest service guy working on contract for the Navy, which owned land adjacent to her final resting place. The Navy said in a press release that her camp was less than two miles from the Appalachian trail and that just walking south from the campsite, would have yielded good visibility after 60-70 yards and after another 25 minutes a logging road that led to lodging. She had ventured out daily for more than a week but doing similar exploratory runs but somehow missed this.
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txaggie02
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In reply to JFABNRGR • 9:51a
AG
JFABNRGR said:
Bewtween the articles it says storms were Thursday night and wet clothes found but other hunters saw Friday morning and truck moved Friday morning.

Was there more bad weather Friday?

Other than 10K elevation terrain looks fairly mild compared to other mtn areas.

No bow in truck so they should be out in the woods.

From the first article in the original post…..

"Unfortunately, terrible storms came in on Thursday night with thunder, lightning, very, very bad fog, and rain. And then those storms kind of continued until Saturday night," Murphy said.
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JFABNRGR
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In reply to txaggie02 • 12:35p
AG
txaggie02 said:
JFABNRGR said:
Bewtween the articles it says storms were Thursday night and wet clothes found but other hunters saw Friday morning and truck moved Friday morning.

Was there more bad weather Friday?

Other than 10K elevation terrain looks fairly mild compared to other mtn areas.

No bow in truck so they should be out in the woods.

From the first article in the original post…..

"Unfortunately, terrible storms came in on Thursday night with thunder, lightning, very, very bad fog, and rain. And then those storms kind of continued until Saturday night," Murphy said.

Agh...thanks for correcting my lack of reading skill.

Sounds to me they got lost, stopped moving, and went hypothermic. Combination of 10,000', wet, & wind can be deadly even at 50 degrees. Wind and rain make it an obstacle to moving. Probably going to find them with a Black bear or two on them.
“You can resolve to live your life with integrity. Let your credo be this: Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me.”
- Alexander Solzhenitsyn
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KingofHazor
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12:59p
The son of a wealthy Albuquerque family died on their ranch outside of Pagosa Springs while hunting in the fall back in the early 80s. He and two of his friends went out on horseback to the area they wanted to hunt, tied the horses up, and then went in separate directions. The temperature was warm so they left their cold and wet weather gear on the horses.

A sudden snowstorm hit and dumped lots of snow. The two friends made it back to the horses and waited for the son to return. He never did.

The snow that year stuck and more snow fell. Search parties were unable to find the son. It wasn't until the next spring when the snow melted that his body was finally found in a sitting position under a tree. Amazingly, his body was several miles on the wrong side of the horses, i.e., he had tried to return to the horses and missed them in the heavy snow, and then continued several miles past them.
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arrow
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3:44p
AG
https://cvillerightnow.com/news/208802-bodies-of-missing-hikers-charlottesville-area-natives-found-in-colorado/
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AstroAggie15
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3:59p
AG
Dang
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harge57
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4:16p
AG
Bummer, but it has been 7 days since last seen at this point so kind of expected.
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