Updated at 3:56 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 2, 2025.
On January 1, 2026, a woman was found dead along a trail in Larimer County with a mountain lion close to her body. Investigators are still working to determine if the big cat was responsible for her death, and officers are searching for a possible third mountain lion seen near the site of the suspected attack.
Wildlife officers and law enforcement who searched the area on Thursday already encountered and killed two mountain lions.
“Mountain lions tend to be very territorial. So if they're in the area, it's possible they could be involved and we just don't know,” said Colorado Parks and Wildlife Northeast Region spokesperson Kara Van Hoose. “We have to get all that could be involved.”
Scientists will conduct necropsies on each animal to determine whether they were involved in the attack. The examinations might also show whether any of the big cats had any conditions, like rabies, that could have played a role.
According to Colorado Parks and Wildlife, a group was hiking the Crosier Mountain trail, to the northeast of Estes Park, a little after noon on Thursday, when they noticed a mountain lion and a woman lying nearby. The hikers threw stones at the animal until it fled, and then approached the woman, but determined she was dead.
Officials have not released any information about the woman other than that she was believed to be hiking alone at the time of the attack.
The Larimer County Coroner’s Office confirmed via email that an autopsy of the victim is scheduled for next week. The results will be released once the next-of-kin have been notified.
Colorado has recorded 28 mountain lion attacks in the past 35 years. The last two fatalities came in the late 1990s. In 1997, a 10-year-old was fatally mauled while hiking with his family in Rocky Mountain National Park. Two years later, a three-year-old went missing from a group hike about 60 miles west of Fort Collins. His death was later ascribed to a mountain lion attack.
The U.S. Forest Service has temporarily closed several trails and trailheads in the area where the attack occurred, including:
- Garden Gate Trailhead (Crosier Mountain Trail 931)
- Gravel Pit/Rainbow Trailhead (Crosier Mountain/Rainbow Trail 981)
- Piper Meadows/Glen Haven Trailhead (parking near Glen Haven Volunteer Fire Department)
There is no timetable as to when those areas will reopen.
The Associated Press spoke to a local man who reported an encounter with an aggressive mountain lion on the same trail during a dawn run in early November.
Gary Messina, 32, told the AP he yelled and threw things at the cat as it tried to get behind him. He managed to hit in the head with a large stick driving it away.
“I had to fight it off because it was basically trying to maul me,” Messina said. “I was scared for my life and I wasn’t able to escape. I tried backing up and it would try to lunge at me.”
Messina said he reported the incident to Colorado Parks and Wildlife, which installed temporary signs warning of mountain lion activity in the area. Van Hoose told the AP those signs were taken down before Thursday’s attack.
Mountain lions tend to be more visible around larger population centers in the winter as they follow their main prey sources, elk and deer, to lower elevations.
“As they're following them, they're just coming in contact more with people and showing up on more doorbell cameras and that sort of thing,” Van Hoose said. “This is the time of year when we expect to get a lot of calls about mountain lions.”
CPW recommends that people hiking in areas with mountain lion activity go in groups and keep pets leashed and children close for safety.
If you encounter a mountain lion, experts say, the best approach is to back away slowly and calmly, while raising your arms and otherwise attempting to look as large as possible. But if attacked, fight back.
Editor's note: This article was updated with more information on a recent encounter with an aggressive mountain lion on the same trail.
