Tragic end for missing 25-year-old New Mexico hunters amid massive search, but their death is still a mystery

A massive search operation came to a heartbreaking close on September 18, 2025, when authorities recovered the bodies of Andrew Porter and Ian Stasko, two 25-year-old elk hunters, near the Rio de los Pinos trailhead in southern Colorado. They had gone missing nearly a week earlier amid a severe storm and rugged terrain.

What happened to Andrew Porter and Ian Stasko?

Porter of Asheville, North Carolina, and Stasko of Salt Lake City, Utah, embarked on an elk-hunting trip in Colorado’s Rio Grande National Forest, in Game Management Unit 81, which lies near the Colorado–New Mexico border.

They arrived on September 11, 2025, and Porter shared his location via a Garmin InReach satellite device with his fiancée, Bridget Murphy, at approximately 3:00 p.m. mountain time, providing brief updates every few hours.

Their last satellite ping came later that afternoon from near Stasko’s parked vehicle at the Rio de los Pinos trailhead, at an elevation of nearly 12,000 feet. The men were expected to check in the following day, but failed to do so.

The Stasko-Porter search effort

On September 13, deputies from the Conejos County Sheriff’s Office located their vehicle at the trailhead. Inside were camping gear and backpacks, plus wet clothes, amid forecasts of heavy rain and lightning. Additionally, the hunting and field-dressing supplies were missing, suggesting the men had returned to change and then resumed their hunt.

Over the next several days, an expansive, multi-jurisdictional search engaged more than 170 personnel, including Colorado Search and Rescue, New Mexico Search and Rescue, La Plata County SAR, volunteers from multiple states, dog teams, horseback units, drones, a Flight for Life helicopter, and even a privately-owned Black Hawk helicopter.

The terrain covered a nearly 14-mile radius between the Rio de los Pinos and Spruce Hole trailheads, including ridgelines, timbered drainages, and rough high-country. On September 12, fellow hunters reported a confirmed sighting of the pair near the Spruce Hole trailhead, a development that gave search teams renewed hope and helped narrow the search area.

A sad conclusion

On September 18, at approximately 11 a.m., Colorado Search and Rescue teams located two unidentified bodies about two miles from the Rio de los Pinos trailhead. The Conejos County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that identification was pending notification of next-of-kin. Shortly afterward, the GoFundMe page managed by Porter’s aunt, Lynne Runkle, announced that Andrew Porter and Ian Stasko had been found deceased.

Conejos County Coroner Richard Martin stated that no obvious injuries or signs of foul play were present on the bodies. Autopsies were scheduled on September 22 in El Paso County to determine the cause of death. According to The Colorado Sun, Martin said, “If there were obvious signs of foul play, we would still be up there, processing the scene,” emphasizing that the deaths remain under investigation.