A woman found dead on a Colorado hiking trail on New Year’s Day is believed to be the victim of the state’s first fatal mountain lion attack since 1999, state authorities said.
Hikers found a woman’s body on a trail on Crosier Mountain in Northern Colorado, with a mountain lion nearby, according to a statement on Thursday from Colorado Parks and Wildlife, which is investigating the death. The hikers scared off the animal by throwing rocks, before confirming the woman was dead.
State wildlife and local law enforcement officers shot and euthanized one mountain lion they found at the scene, according to Kara Van Hoose, a spokeswoman for Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Officers then found and euthanized a second mountain lion in the area. By Friday afternoon, they spotted a third mountain lion and were trying to track it down. The state’s policy is to euthanize wildlife believed to be involved in attacks on humans.
The woman who was killed had “wounds consistent with a mountain lion attack,” Ms. Van Hoose said in an interview.
Pathologists with Colorado Parks and Wildlife will conduct necropsies on both animals, including an examination of stomach contents and tests for diseases like rabies or bird flu. Those investigations, along with an autopsy on the dead hiker, will help determine the cause of death, Ms. Van Hoose said.
If confirmed, the attack would be the first fatal one by a mountain lion in Colorado since 1999, when a 3-year-old boy was killed. In 1997, a mountain lion killed a 10-year-old boy hiking with his family in Rocky Mountain National Park.
Mountain lions, though elusive and solitary, are widespread in the American West, where they are known to prey on pets and livestock. Still, attacks on humans — especially fatal ones — are incredibly rare.
In Colorado’s Front Range, part of the Southern Rocky Mountains, sightings of mountain lions are common, especially during the winter months when the creatures follow prey like deer and elk, Ms. Van Hoose said.
The state’s parks and wildlife agency has fielded reports of mountain lion sightings in the area of this week’s attack in recent months, including encounters between lions and domestic animals, she said.
The agency investigated each case but was unable to identify the mountain lion involved, Ms. Van Hoose said. The agency had placed trail warnings in the area, notifying hikers of the recent mountain lion activity.
“Mountain lion populations in Colorado are very healthy, and human populations in Colorado are only increasing,” Ms. Van Hoose said. Given those conditions, she said, humans and lions will occasionally come into contact.
She also noted that the agency had not seen any data pointing to a meaningful increase in mountain lion attacks or encounters in recent years.
In March 2024, California recorded its first fatal mountain lion attack in two decades after one attacked a pair of brothers on a remote road near Georgetown, killing one and severely wounding another.
Chris Hippensteel is a reporter covering breaking news and a member of the 2025-26 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their careers.
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