On New Year’s Day morning, a 46-year-old woman went out alone on a quiet stretch of Larimer County trail and didn’t come back. What investigators found over the next 72 hours is the story Colorado’s predator-management debate has been quietly heading toward for years.
What Happened on Crosier Mountain Trail
Kristen Marie Kovatch, of Fort Collins, was hiking solo on the Crosier Mountain Trail — national forest ground south of the small community of Glen Haven — on January 1, 2026. When she didn’t return, the search began. Her body was recovered nearby. The Larimer County Coroner’s Office later ruled her cause of death as asphyxia due to external neck compression.
That ruling matters, because in mountain lion attacks the killing bite is almost always a crush to the back of the neck or throat. It’s how a 100-pound cat takes down something its own size or bigger. The cause of death lined up with what Colorado Parks and Wildlife was already piecing together from the scene.
The cat responsible was a one-year-old male. CPW found human DNA on all four of its paws.
The 72 Hours After
CPW officers spent the next three days running down sign in the immediate area. They located and euthanized two lions: the young male, and a one-year-old female that had been traveling with him — though her paws came back clean of human DNA. A third lion was tracked for over 72 hours, but the trail went cold and the search was called off.
Mark Leslie, CPW’s Northeast Region manager, summed up the agency’s read on it bluntly: “It is very unlikely that these lions were in such close proximity to the scene by coincidence.” Translated: these cats weren’t passing through. They’d likely been spending time in that drainage.
This is Colorado’s first fatal mountain lion attack in more than 28 years. The last one was 1997, also on the Front Range.
The Warning Signs Were Already There
Kovatch’s death wasn’t the first incident in that stretch of country. In the nine weeks before the attack, CPW logged five separate run-ins along the same trail system:
- October 28 — A mountain lion killed a dog in Estes Park.
- October 29 — A lion took a dog on West Creek Road in Larimer County.
- November 11 — A lion approached a runner on the Crosier Mountain Trail. The runner hazed it off with a stick and thrown rocks.
- November 30 — Two lions were sighted together near the Crosier Mountain summit.
- December 23 — A man shot and killed a three-year-old male lion that was attacking his dog.
Read that list again. That’s a stretch of trail where lions had been killing dogs, approaching humans, and traveling in pairs and groups for two months before a person was killed. Habituated cats don’t become habituated overnight. They get there because they figure out that humans and dogs are easy.
The Bigger Picture Colorado Doesn’t Want to Talk About
In November 2024, Colorado voters narrowly rejected Proposition 127, the ballot measure that would have banned the regulated hunting of mountain lions and bobcats statewide. The vote came in around 55-45 against the ban, with rural counties driving the no vote and the Front Range split. Lion hunting remains legal in Colorado — but the margin was thin, and similar initiatives are already being telegraphed for a return run.
We’re not saying lion hunting would have prevented this specific attack. Predator management is more complicated than that, and what happened on Crosier Mountain was the result of behavior building up in one specific drainage. What we are saying is that the close call on 127 — combined with five separate run-ins on the same trail system in the nine weeks before Kovatch’s death — is exactly why CPW, wildlife biologists, and most of the state’s hunters fought to keep regulated harvest on the books.
States that allow lion hunting — Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Montana, and Colorado for now — manage their populations through a combination of quota harvest and houndsman pursuit. It’s not perfect. But it keeps cats from forgetting humans are dangerous, and it gives the agency real-time data on age class, density, and prey condition. The tool works when it’s used.
What to Carry, What to Do
If you’re hiking, hunting, or scouting solo in lion country, a few things actually move the needle:
Don’t go alone if you can avoid it. Almost every fatal cat attack in North America has been a solo target — a runner, a hiker, a kid out ahead of the group. Pairs and groups get bluffed; singles get killed.
Make yourself look bigger and louder. If you see a cat, do not run. Stand tall, raise your jacket, throw rocks, yell. The November 11 runner on Crosier did exactly that and walked away. Run, and you flip a switch in their brain.
Carry something. Bear spray works on cats. A sidearm works on cats. Your trekking pole, used aggressively, is better than your hands.
Watch your kids and dogs. They’re closer to cat-prey size than you are.
The Hunt Behind The Hounds
If you’ve ever wanted to hunt a mountain lion behind a quality pack of hounds, New Mexico is one of the best places to do it. Strong cat numbers, real houndsmen, an open season, and country built for the chase. We run a guided New Mexico mountain lion and bear hunt with dogs that’s about as authentic a cat experience as exists in the lower 48 right now.
If you’re after elk or mule deer in country where predator management still includes hunters, take a look at our Southwest Colorado private land elk and trophy mule deer options, or browse the full lineup on Hunt Adventures. Want help picking? Send us a message. We’re also running the Dream Hunts Sweepstakes through July 4 — two draws, one elk hunt, one whitetail.
Related reading: Colorado’s Fur Ban and What It Means for Hunters.
Sources: Colorado Sun | Colorado Politics | Colorado Parks and Wildlife
