Updated at 3:07 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025.
An investigation into last year’s accident that left 12 people trapped, 4 injured and 1 dead in the Mollie Kathleen Mine in Teller County ruled it was due to "operator error.”
The tourist mine has been closed since October after a cease and desist order by the state. It will be allowed to reopen later this year.
“State mining Inspectors determined that the Mollie Kathleen tourist mine met the provisions of the Regulations for the Mine Safety and Training Program for Tourist Mines and no imminent or substantial danger to the public or employees exists,” the Teller County Sheriff's office, who helped conduct the investigation, said. The inspection looked into procedures, training records, fire prevention, ventilation, communication systems, and more.
“Additionally, the investigation by the Teller County Sheriff’s Office determined to have been operator error not attributed to current mine practices or equipment malfunctions. The case has been closed as an accidental death,” the sheriff’s office said.
Originally, officials called the accident an equipment malfunction with the mine’s elevator, which is about a two-minute ride and a 1,000-foot drop down into the Earth. From there, tourists can walk about a quarter mile of underground terrain, according to the tour company’s website. The accident occurred as the elevator was descending into the mine in the mountains near Colorado Springs. At around 500 feet (152 meters) down, the person operating the elevator from the surface “felt something strange " and stopped it, Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell said at the time.
The elevator was still operable, and 11 people on board when the incident happened were brought back up within 20 minutes, he said. A door on the elevator was broken when it was raised. Those eleven people included two children as well as 46-year-old Patrick Weier, an Air Force veteran and tour guide at the mine who passed away. Mikesell said Weier had died because of a problem with the elevator, not a medical problem.
“We don’t know if the door malfunctioned or not or if something else occurred. There’s a lot that goes on in these little elevators,” he said then. “We just know that the door was broken somehow.”
Twelve adults from a second group were trapped at the bottom of the mine, while engineers made sure the elevator could be used. They waited hours for rescue when crews were able to get the elevator working the night of the accident, running it up and down the mine unmanned to make sure it was safe before removing the final dozen who were trapped.
The case has been ruled an accident and has been closed, the sheriff’s office said in its update. It did not explain what happened to Weier or how he died. He had a young child and was from the nearby town of Victor, Colorado.
A spokesperson for the sheriff's office, Lt. Renee Bunting, declined to provide more details and told a reporter with the Associated Press to file a records request to get more information.
The Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine was discovered in 1891 and has been conducting tours since the 1930s. It is not known when the mine will reopen. The mine's website, which prominently features a photo of Weier and a link to a fundraiser for his son, still said it was closed indefinitely on Thursday.
The AP's Colleen Slevin contributed to this report.
Editor's note: This story was updated with more information on the results of the investigation.
