Woman found in Colorado dead from suspected mountain lion attack

A woman was found dead on a hiking trail in Colorado on Thursday, with officials suspecting her death came from a mountain lion.

Fellow hikers on the Crosier Mountain Trail, 70 miles northwest of Denver, saw the woman lying on the ground with the big cat near her at around 12:15 p.m., Colorado Parks and Wildlife said.

The hikers threw rocks to scare the mountain lion away and subsequently went to the victim, but did not find a pulse.

“It was acting protectively over the person when the two men saw it,” Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesperson Kara Van Hoose told the Fort Collins Coloradoan.

The Larimer County Coroner’s Office is working to identify the cause of death for the woman, whom they have not publicly identified.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife did not say if the hikers who found her observed any visible signs of a mountain lion attack, such as claw or bite marks.

Responding Colorado Parks and Wildlife and local law enforcement officers found a mountain lion nearby where the victim was found.

The officers shot the big cat, and it fled, but the officers tracked it down and finished it off before killing a second mountain lion nearby shortly thereafter. It is Colorado Parks and Wildlife policy to kill any animals suspected of attacking people.

There have been 28 mountain lion attacks on humans reported to Colorado Parks and Wildlife since 1990. If the woman’s death is confirmed as caused by the animal, it will be the first in the state since 1999.