Hiker finds remains of rock hunter missing since 2023 in remote area of Colorado
A hiker found the body of a rock hunter missing for two years in a remote area of Colorado, officials said.
The hiker contacted the Saguache County Sheriff’s Office when they found “what appeared to be human remains” June 17, the agency said in a June 27 post on Facebook.
The agency “secured the scene pending further investigation,” then agents and crime scene analysts from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation returned the next day along with two cadaver dog teams to search the area, the agency said in a news release.
The teams recovered the remains and the El Paso County Coroner’s Office confirmed the identity as 55-year-old Edna Quintana, who was reported missing in 2023 after she didn’t return from rock hunting near a county road north of the town of Saguache.
“Edna’s very shy, very humble, very quiet, very soft-spoken,” her cousin Augustina Edwards said after Quintana went missing, KRDO reported. “You probably will not find anybody in Saguache that has a bad thing to say about Edna.”
Saguache County deputies notified Quintana’s family of their findings. The cause and manner of death is still under investigation, officials said.
Since authorities have been searching for Quintana, two more bodies have been found in the same area, a Colorado Bureau of Investigation spokesperson told McClatchy News via email.
In July 2023, authorities discovered the remains of 26-year-old James Montoya. Denver Police learned he had been murdered in the Denver area months before, officials said.
Then in September 2023, CBI agents discovered the remains of 49-year-old Suzanne Morphew in the nearby town of Moffat, officials said. The woman’s husband was indicted June 18 on a first-degree murder charge, The Denver Post reported.
Anyone with information regarding Quintana’s disappearance or death should contact the Saguache County Sheriff’s Office at 719-655-2525.
Saguache County is about a 150-mile drive southwest from Colorado Springs.
