Officials Recovered Poems and Cash But Mystery Remains About Man Whose Foot Was Found in Yellowstone Hot Pool
Diane Renkin/AP/Shutterstock Abyss Pool
Yellowstone National Park officials have released new information about the 70-year-old man whose foot was found floating in a thermal pool last summer, although the details of his death remain unknown.
Part of the man's foot was inside a shoe when it was first discovered by staff in August, park officials previously said back in November, when they identified Il Hun Ro of Los Angeles as the victim. At the time, they said an investigation determined the "unwitnessed incident" took place on the morning of July 31 at Abyss Pool, and that foul play was not suspected.
The newly-released park documents shed new light as to what took place during the investigation and how officials came to their conclusions.
The man's shoe was first reported to a tour guide by a visitor on Aug. 16, according to a park ranger's report included in the documents. At the time, a park employee, whose name was redacted, "claimed to have 'found this odd' because he had pulled out two shoe soles out of the same pool in the past week."
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After arriving at the scene, officials began closing off the area to visitors, which included a nearby parking lot, per the documents.
By the time witness statements and interviews had been completed, three vehicles remained parked in the area, although two were quickly claimed, according to the documents. The remaining car was registered to the victim, officials discovered.
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Inside the vehicle, a number of personal items were found, including a laptop, park maps, personal photos, a wallet containing $447, as well as a "small book of poems" that contained handwritten notes, the documents stated.
Investigators indicated in the documents that they used Google Translate to decipher the poems and notes they found, and were "unable to find anything consistent with a suicide note." An additional search did not find any other possible note.
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After obtaining his driver's license, investigators were able to determine that the man stayed at the Canyon Lodge on July 30, but that he checked out the following day, per the documents. The lodge is about an hour away from the West Thumb Geyser Basin, which is where the Abyss Pool is located, according to the Associated Press.
In the documents, officials said that "no other stay information was available."
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Using items collected from the vehicle, investigators were able to find a family member who consented to submitting a DNA sample, which was compared to remains from the foot, the documents stated.
Although no other "significant remains" were found in the Abyss Pool, samples of what appeared to be "fatty tissues" were found on the surface of the water, although conclusive information about what was sampled was not released, according to the documents.
The National Park Service did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.
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After the foot was discovered, officials temporarily closed West Thumb Geyser Basin and its parking lot, per a previous statement from the park. Additionally, they shared a cautionary notice to visitors.
"Visitors are reminded to stay on boardwalks and trails in thermal areas and exercise extreme caution around thermal features," officials wrote at the time. "The ground in hydrothermal areas is fragile and thin, and there is scalding water just below the surface."
The Abyss Pool has a depth of more than 50 feet and is one of Yellowstone's deepest. Temperatures can reach 140 degrees Fahrenheit.
