Family Is Grateful Hunters Who Were Killed in Freak Lightning Strike Incident Died Together Without ‘Fear or Pain’

After two hunters went missing and were later found dead following a lightning strike in southern Colorado, their grieving loved ones expressed gratitude that the pair passed together while doing what they loved most.

“I can’t imagine a better way to go out,” Dylan Stasko told FOX affiliate KSTU about her brother, Ian Stasko, who died alongside his friend Andrew Porter on Thursday, Sept. 18. “They were with each other, doing what they loved in an absolutely beautiful place.”

Both 25, Ian and Porter were experienced hunters on a trip in the Rio Grande National Forest. Their last contact came when Porter shared his location via a satellite device with his fiancée, Bridget Murphy, on Sept. 11, she told The Colorado Sun. He had been checking in with Murphy and his family every few hours until that communication.

By Sept. 13, deputies from the Conejos County Sheriff’s Office arrived at the Rio de Los Pinos Trailhead after reports that the two men were overdue, according to press releases shared with PEOPLE. Officials said the men had “failed to check in with loved ones at a predetermined time.”

A dayslong search began, involving more than 170 people, search teams on foot and by air, horseback units, and canine teams. Early in the search, the men’s vehicle was located at the trailhead with their backpacks and camping gear inside, raising concern due to the “heavy rain and bad weather,” the sheriff’s office said.

By Sept. 17, Murphy provided an update on Facebook that the men had been seen alive on the morning of Sept. 12. “This gives us one more night we know they were safe,” she wrote.

As she called for help in the search, Murphy held onto hope of seeing her fiancé again, who she was set to marry in a few months, according to The Colorado Sun.

Murphy described both Porter and Stasko as “very prepared outdoorsmen,” but acknowledged that the outcome could have depended on their state of mind or exposure to hypothermia. “We’re just not sure. So there’s a lot of teams out looking,” she explained.

On Sept. 18, officials announced the search had ended when the bodies of both men were found two miles from the Rio de Los Pinos Trailhead. Four days later, Conejos County Coroner Richard Martin confirmed to PEOPLE that lightning had caused their deaths. He said their injuries were consistent with “a pretty intense electrical jolt.”

Though devastating, the families found some measure of peace in knowing the circumstances.

“They didn’t do anything wrong, they didn’t feel fear or pain,” Murphy wrote on social media. She shared that Porter had been trying to return to his car when the storm struck on Sept. 12.

“It was out of everyone’s hands, and I am so grateful we found them so they can be at peace,” she continued. “He was an experienced outdoorsman who was in the wrong spot at the wrong time.”

Dylan expressed a similar sentiment in a tribute to her brother on Instagram. Calling Ian her “best friend,” she wrote that every adventure with him had been “beautiful.”

“I learned everything from you, you pushed me to do things I didn’t think I was capable of,” she continued. “And you made me into the person I am today, a mini version of you.”

For Murphy, losing Porter feels like losing a future they had envisioned together. She holds onto his memory, including the final FaceTime moment when she saw him “smiling and full of happiness with Ian there.”

“I love you, Andrew, so hard I can’t breathe,” she wrote. “I will always love you, forever. Every day, I will miss you. Every day, I will think of what you’d be doing. I won’t let you down.”