Overview

• The victim was identified by officials as Colton Gauge Honeycutt, 17, of Monroe, Louisiana.
• Deputies were dispatched around 8:30 p.m. Saturday to Robert Welch Road near the Weldon community after a report of an injured person.
• First responders located Honeycutt in an elevated deer stand in a remote wooded area, and the Union Parish Coroner pronounced him dead at the scene.
• Authorities say thunderstorms moved through the area shortly before sunset and they believe a lightning strike caused the fatality, with the case still under investigation.
• Family members alerted authorities when Honeycutt did not return from a hunting trip; a national lightning safety group later noted the death as the 20th U.S. lightning fatality of 2025 and the fifth hunting-related in two months.