{"id":44234,"date":"2021-10-14T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-15T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/fort-lewis-college-student-found-dead-in-backcountry-north-of-durango\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:18:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:18:02","slug":"fort-lewis-college-student-found-dead-in-backcountry-north-of-durango","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/fort-lewis-college-student-found-dead-in-backcountry-north-of-durango\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Lewis College student found dead in backcountry north of Durango"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/p>

A 20-year-old Fort Lewis College student was found dead Monday in the backcountry of San Juan County, north of Durango.<\/p>\n

\n

For help<\/h4>\n

Help for people having suicidal thoughts or for those who fear a person is considering suicide:<\/p>\n

Axis Care Hotline:<\/strong>24\/7 local response to your crisis & behavioral health needs: (970) 247-5245<\/p>\n

NATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION HOTLINE:<\/strong>(800) 273-TALK (8255) or text \u201cTALK\u201d to 741741<\/p>\n

RED NACIONAL DE PREVENCI\u00d3N DEL SUICIDIO:<\/strong>(888) 628-9454<\/p>\n

FORT LEWIS COLLEGE COUNSELING CENTER:<\/strong>247-7212<\/p>\n

BOYS TOWN HOTLINE:<\/strong>(800) 448-3000.<\/p>\n

SAFE2TELL COLORADO:<\/strong>(877) 542-7233 or safe2tell.org<\/p>\n

COLORADO CRISIS SUPPORT LINE:<\/strong>(844) 493-8255 or text \u201cTALK\u201d to 38255 or online at coloradocrisisservices.org to access a live chat available in 17 languages. The line has mental-health professionals available to talk to adults or youths 24 hours a day.<\/p>\n

AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR SUICIDE PREVENTION:<\/strong>Colorado chapter information available at afsp.org\/chapter\/afsp-colorado\/<\/p>\n

FOR MEN:<\/strong>A website for adult men contemplating suicide is available at mantherapy.org<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

La Plata County Coroner Jann Smith identified the woman as Valerie Johnson, 20.<\/p>\n

Johnson was found in a wooded area, but Smith didn\u2019t have a precise location. Johnson had been there for an undetermined amount of time, but not for long, Smith said.<\/p>\n

An autopsy was performed Tuesday, Smith said.<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s hometown was not immediately known.<\/p>\n

Lauren Savage, a college spokeswoman, said Friday\u2019s classes have been rescheduled \u201cso that students, faculty and staff can come together and do a check-in and have community support in this time of loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

FLC President Tom Stritikus offered a statement Thursday night: \u201cFLC is grief-stricken by the apparent suicide of our student Val Johnson, who was loved by her family and friends, and was incredibly witty,\u201d according to an email sent by the college\u2019s media relations strategist. \u201cThe FLC community is committed to working with our students to address this serious public health issue and take steps together toward healing and belonging.\u201c<\/p>\n

San Juan Basin Public Health Executive Director Liane Jollon urged those struggling with depression or suicidal thoughts to call a help line to discuss their feelings, saying \u201cyour life has profound value.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSJBPH is saddened to learn of the tragic loss of a beloved young person,\u201d Jollon said in an email. \u201cWe send condolences to the FLC community and all who are grieving.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

College reschedules classes for \u2018community support\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44235,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,955],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-44234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-suicide"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44234"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86013,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44234\/revisions\/86013"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44234"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=44234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}