On January 1, 2026, a woman was killed and attacked by a mountain lion while hiking in Larimer County.
According to Colorado Parks and Wildlife, there was a group hiking the Crosier Mountain trail, which is northeast of Estes Park. During that Thursday afternoon, they noticed a big cat and a woman lying nearby, and the hikers threw stones at the mountain lion until it ran off. One of the hikers was a physician, and when they approached the woman, she had no pulse.
This attack triggered an extensive response from the Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) and renewed public safety warnings concerning the increased presence of mountain lions closer to Colorado cities. Once authorities arrived at the scene, two mountain lions that were found in the area were euthanized. While CPW removed the immediate threat to the public, the incident has added to recent concerns about the effectiveness of the state agency.
On January 5, CPW released a portion of the necropsy results of the mountain lions that were killed. They said that one of the lions was a male and the other was a female. Both were described as in “very good” condition with no signs of abnormalities. The DNA of the victim was found on all four paws of the male lion.
The agency has suspected that the mountain lions were part of a family group due to “multiple lions being present at the attack and evidence found at the scene.” There was evidence of a third big cat, but after they searched with trained dogs for more than 72 hours, they found no fresh tracks or scents of the third cat.
The woman who was killed and identified was 46-year-old Kristen Marie Kovatch, who was an avid hiker and runner and was part of several community running groups in Fort Collins. The last fatal attack occurred in 1999, when a three-year-old boy went missing on a family hike outside of Fort Collins. His remains were found nearly four years later.
Even before she was killed, the area where Kristen was hiking was known to be a home for many mountain lions. There were five reports of cougars made to the agency, both attacks and sightings, in the nine weeks before Kirsten was killed. One report occurred on October 28 after a mountain lion attacked and killed a dog that was off-leash in Estes Park. Another report told of a trail runner who was forced to chase off an approaching lion with a stick.
On January 5, CPW opened the Crosier Mountain Trail to the public, yet the public isn’t satisfied. Two weeks after the attack, CPW officials shared with the Colorado Sun that they are still receiving anonymous death threats over the handling of the incident. According to CPW acting director Laura Clellan, these threats are from both those unhappy that they killed two cougars in their investigation and those who feel the agency isn’t killing enough of them to keep the public safe.
As agents are required to investigate every threat, the money and staff being reallocated to those investigations are starting to prevent CPW from moving forward with projects to keep the public safe
Kristen Kovatch’s death is just the latest in a series of controversies CPW has faced this past year. On January 21, CPW told the public that it would not be able to release more gray wolves this year after conservative gubernatorial candidate Greg Lopez accused CPW of violating the Endangered Species Act. Generally, the reintroduction of gray wolves to Colorado has been met with hostility from ranchers and their advocates since the program started in 2023. CPW has also faced pushback from environmental groups that want a full ban on hunting furbearers (animals like bobcats, beavers, coyotes, foxes, and mountain lions) since their push for the passage of Prop 127 failed in 2024.
