Cause of Death Revealed for Missing College Students Found After Hike as Authorities Blame a ‘Catastrophic Failure’
Cause of Death Revealed for Missing College Students Found After Hike as Authorities Blame a ‘Catastrophic Failure’
Adam Carlson, David ChiuTue, November 3, 2026 at 10:36 PM UTC
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From left: Jackson Donlon and Kaden MatsudaCredit: Chaffee County Sheriff's Office Facebook (2) -
Authorities have released the cause of death for Kaden Matsuda, 19, and 20-year-old Jackson Donlon
The Colorado college students went missing on a hike and were later found dead after a “catastrophic failure” of their equipment
“There are no right words to family and friends for a loss this heavy,” the sheriff said in a statement
Authorities have released the cause of death for two Colorado college students who went missing on a hike and who were later found dead together.
The bodies of Kaden Matsuda, 19, and 20-year-old Jackson Donlon were recovered near one another in a basin of the West Apostle Mountain on Thursday, Oct. 29.
The friends, described as “experienced hikers,” were first reported missing on Oct. 26, three days after they left campus for a hike on Ice Mountain, authorities have said.
The Chaffee County sheriff’s office and coroner’s office said in a joint statement on Tuesday, Nov. 2, that an autopsy showed Matsuda and Donlon died of “multiple blunt force injuries.”
According to an investigation, the pair fell while rappelling due to a “catastrophic failure of unknown cause” in one of the anchor points.
“Both then fell a substantial distance,” the authorities said.
Donlon had been about to rappel “from a primary anchor point on a rock substrate,” the agencies said. “That anchor appears to have been backed up by a piton and a secondary anchor made of rock substrate. [Matsuda] was attached via his personal anchor device to the same anchor points as well as the primary anchor point.”
They died instantly, according to the new statement.
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Officials noted that while thatit was not clear if a snowstorm had a “negative impact leading to the incident, but it did not play a direct contributing factor in their death.”
In a previous statement, their school, Colorado Mountain College, mourned and remembered them as “kind-hearted” and “adventurous.”
Matsuda, of Ridgway, Colo., was studying wildland firefighting and had already done service work after high school.
Donlon, of New York, was studying outdoor recreation leadership and came to Colorado for his passion for the mountains, according to his school.
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While Matsuda and Donlon were from different parts of the country, “they found common ground in their love of the mountains. At CMC, that shared passion grew into a friendship and a sense of belonging in the campus community,” the school said.
In a statement on Tuesday, Sheriff Andy Rohrich said, in part: “While their lives were far too short, they spent their final moments together surrounded by the majestic beauty of Chaffee County’s high peaks that they loved. There is also relief knowing neither of them suffered.”
“There are no right words to family and friends for a loss this heavy,” Rohrich said. “Know that whenever we explore our backcountry in the future we will think of them as young men who didn’t just look at the world; they climbed it. May they rest in peace.
on People
Source: “AOL Breaking”
