Authorities probing the deaths of two elk hunters who were missing for roughly a week in the Rio Grande National Forest found no obvious injuries on their bodies or initial signs of foul play, the local coroner said Friday.
An investigation into what caused the deaths of Andrew Porter and Ian Stasko is ongoing, said Conejos County Coroner Richard Martin.
Autopsies were expected to be conducted Monday in El Paso County, Martin said.
Search and rescue teams found two unidentified bodies about 11 a.m. Thursday about 2 miles from the Rio de Los Pinos trailhead following a massive search effort.
Porter, of Asheville, North Carolina, and Stasko, of Salt Lake City, Utah, were last heard from Sept. 11 about 3 p.m. when Porter shared his location with his fiancée, Bridget Murphy, from his Garmin InReach satellite device.
Both were experienced outdoorsmen, Murphy previously told The Colorado Sun. Last year they spent a month hunting elk in the Crazy Mountains of Montana. Murphy said they were the kind of people who built outdoor forts for fun at age 12.
The men, both 25, were hunting southwest of Monte Vista in Game Management Unit 81, which stretches from the Continental Divide on the west to the Rio Grande River on the east and down to the border of New Mexico.
Martin, who did not see the scene of the recovery, said no determination has been made about cause or manner of death.
“It’s a big mystery to a whole bunch of people,” Martin said.
The search for evidence to pinpoint what caused the men’s deaths could take time, said Gunnison County Coroner Michael Barnes, who is not directly involved in the case.
“For this case specifically, the scene may encompass a larger geographic area with natural hazards that prolong evidence collection and documentation,” Barnes wrote in an email to The Sun. “The time it takes to conduct a thorough death investigation can be a hardship for loved ones desperately seeking answers.”
Last heard from at a trailhead at 10,020 feet
The last ping from Porter’s InReach device came from near Stasko’s car, which was parked at the trailhead, at around 10,000 feet. Authorities found wet clothes in the car. But none of the gear Porter would need to hunt, harvest or pack out an elk was in the car.
Thunderstorms were reported in Alamosa, the nearest National Weather Service site to the trailhead where the men were last reported, Sept. 12 and 13, Makoto Moore, a meteorologist with the agency’s office in Pueblo. The storms likely originated in the eastern San Juan mountains, Moore said.
“You’re going to get a higher potential for lightning, the gusty winds, and maybe even some small hail,” Moore said of the higher elevation terrain where the men were hunting. “But again, we don’t have any stations up there that could give us the daily or even an hourly data.”
By Sept. 14, overnight temperatures dropped to the mid-to-low-30s in Alamosa, which sits at 7,500 feet elevation.
“Certainly the elements were probably working against them,” Moore said.
During the week Porter and Stasko were missing, multiple search and rescue teams, law enforcement agencies and volunteer hikers, horseback riders and hunters searched for them.
Bob Rodgers is the search and rescue resource officer for the New Mexico Department of Public Safety in Albuquerque. He said after Conejos County Sheriff Garth Crowther contacted him for assistance on Monday, he dispatched “a bunch of resources” on Tuesday and Wednesday, including drones, ATVs and around 30 volunteer searchers.
They combed the area off of the Rio de Los Pinos trail, he said, zeroing in on a large bowl that topped out at over 11,000 feet. He characterized the terrain there as “really rough and really steep” with typical cold and windy mountain weather. He said when Porter and Stasko went hunting they would have had to “climb up out of the bowl to go hunt in different directions.”
But any storms that had been in the area had moved out by the time his searchers arrived, and the weather was good, he said. His teams helped search Tuesday and Wednesday, until the Colorado Search and Rescue Association “activated and brought a bunch of resources.” At that point he determined his teams were no longer needed and called them back to New Mexico.
Friends of Porter remembered him as a quiet, thoughtful person who helped ground Murphy. Alex Stokman, who owns a Missoula-based company called Venery that teaches women to hunt, said, “Andrew was quiet, focused and creative with a steady presence that was deeply supportive of those around him.”
And Draya Grangroth, a hunting guide, author and photographer, said Porter’s passion for hunting shone through his soft-spoken demeanor.
Porter was incredibly supportive of Murphy, whom he planned to marry in May 2026, Stokman and Grangroth said. Two things were “very apparent” to anyone who spent time with Porter, Grangroth said, “his passion and love for the outdoors, and his love for Bridget.”
Stasko and Porter attended Albemarle High School in Charlottesville, Virginia.