Hiker’s Death Ruled Suicide; Earlier Missing Hiker Case Still Open

The man found dead late Wednesday afternoon in the Kintla Lake area has been identified as Bruce Colburn, 53, of Reading, Pennsylvania.  According to the Flathead County Coroner’s Office, Colburn’s death is considered a suicide caused by a self-inflicted single gunshot wound to the chest. Park rangers searching the ground near the head of Kintla Lake found a pack matching the description of Colburn’s pack (grayish in color) at approximately 4 p.m. on Wednesday.  That information was relayed to personnel conducting an aerial search via Minuteman Helicopter and Colburn’s body was found within minutes on a slope above the trail from the location where the pack was found. It appears that Colburn left the Kintla Lake trail and scrambled upslope to a point approximately one quarter to one third of a mile above the lake. In a separate missing person incident last summer, Yi-Jien Hwa, a 27-year-old Malaysian man, was reported overdue by his family on the last day of his week-long park itinerary. He was never heard from again. Active searches were scaled back in early September after several weeks of concentrated effort. That investigation remains open; however, no new clues have surfaced.  Park officials are still seeking information from anyone who may have interacted with Hwa last August.