Photo: Robert Sachowski // Unsplash
More details have emerged in the case of a fatal mountain lion attack last week in Colorado. An autopsy on the victim and necropsies on mountain lions killed shortly afterwards provided further insight into the tragedy.
The Larimer County Coroner’s Office identified the victim as 46-year-old Kristen Marie Kovatch, as Colorado Public Radio reports. An autopsy performed Monday ruled the cause of death to be asphyxia due to external neck compression – injuries consistent with a mountain lion attack. No other information was released.
“UCHealth is saddened to learn of the tragic death of Kristen Marie Kovatch,” UCHealth said in a statement to 9NEWS. “She served as a dedicated medical assistant at UCHealth Heart and Vascular Clinic in Fort Collins from 2011 until 2021. We extend our heartfelt condolences to her loved ones.”
Kovatch was first found just before noon on Thursday, when two hikers encountered a mountain lion near her body on the Crosier Mountain trail, northeast of Estes Park in northern Colorado. The hikers threw rocks at the animal to scare it away, then checked the body and did not find a pulse.
Afterwards, Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers and law enforcement killed two mountain lions. A necropsy found human DNA on all four paws of the male mountain lion, but none on the second animal. Both mountain lions tested negative for rabies.
Kovatch may not have been the first hiker to encounter the animal. In November, Gary Messina was running along the same trail when he was rushed by a mountain lion. “I had to fight it off because it was basically trying to maul me,” he told The Associated Press. “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.”
Though mountain lion sightings are common, attacks are exceptionally rare. The last fatal attack in Colorado was in 1999, when a three-year-old boy went missing in the wilderness and his tattered clothes were found over three years later.
