Newlywed bride killed by lightning in Rocky Mountains

Friends set up a crowdfunding campaign to memorialize the newlywed woman who died after lightning struck her and her husband during a honeymoon hike in the Rocky Mountains earlier this month.

Katie Bartlett, 31, married her boyfriend RyanPocius, 32, on July 11, 2015.

According to aGofundme page set up in Bartlett’s memory, on July 17, the last day of the honeymoon, the two were hiking on Mt. Yale when tragedy struck.

“On their trek back down the mountain a storm quickly moved overhead. Nearly at treeline, the couple was struck by lightning. Sadly Katie passed away, and her husband was critically injured,” the Gofundme page stated.

People who saw the lightning hiked for hours to get help, but Bartlett died instantly, the Gofundme page said.

Pocius has since been released from the hospital.

“Katie was a unique spirit that left this world too soon,” the Gofundme page stated. “She had a devoted passion for nature, education, the elderly, and animals. She was a dedicated special education preschool teacher and had recently earned her master’s degree in early childhood development.”

In a Facebook message posted on the Denver Post, Pocius wrote, “Katie is and forever will be my wife and my one true love. …everyone should know that Katie was doing something she loved – hiking. …She had said on the hike up that it was the most beautiful hike she had ever been on. She was so happy that day and she was surrounded in a bed of wildflowers as far as her eyes could see as she passed from this world to the next.”

The Gofundmecampaign has been raising money for charity in Bartlett’s name.

A total of 22people have been killed by lightning strikes in Colorado in 2015, according to the National Weather Service.