PARK COUNTY, Colo. — A Conifer woman died this week after a backcountry ATV crash.
Park County Search and Rescue said on social media that its team members began search and recovery efforts in Pike National Forest early in the morning Wednesday along with members of several other agencies. Crews climbed "steep and treacherous terrain" as they searched for the crash site, they said.
Teams worked all day and night to find her, the social media post said, and found her on Thursday morning. The Park County Coroner's Office identified her as 60-year-old Shelley Ekstrom of Conifer. They determined that she had died in an ATV crash on Tuesday night.
According to the Lafayette-based nonprofit Justice Takes Flight, Ekstrom and a neighbor had left their homes on Tuesday. Her neighbor was found alive on Wednesday.
The group shared on social media that Ekstrom was a veterinarian. The website for her former practice, Indian Tree Animal Hospital in Arvada, said Ekstrom began her veterinary career in the Texas equine industry before switching to small animal medicine and moving to Colorado, where she enjoyed outdoor activities including hiking in the mountains and riding motorcycles. She was also an avid bronze sculptor.
