Officials have identified the partial foot discovered in one of Yellowstone’s deepest hot springs
By Andi Babineau and Alaa Elassar, CNN
Yellowstone National Park officials have identified the person whose foot was found floating in one of the park’s deepest hot springs in August.
Los Angeles resident Il Hun Ro, 70, was identified “in the last three weeks” using DNA analysis, the park said in a news release Thursday, and his family has been notified.
“The investigation determined, to the best of our knowledge, that an unwitnessed incident involving one individual happened on the morning of July 31, 2022, at Abyss Pool, and no foul play occurred,” park officials said. “Based on a lack of evidence, the circumstances surrounding the death of Ro remain unknown.”
An employee first discovered the partial foot in a shoe floating in the thermal pool, located in the West Thumb Geyser Basin in the southern part of the park.
The Abyss Pool has a depth of up to 53 feet, according to the National Park Service. It has a temperature of approximately 140 degrees Fahrenheit.
Water in these hot springs can “severely burn” visitors, the service warns on its website.
This is not the first fatality in one of the Yellowstone’s thermal pools, according to data listed on the park’s website. In August 2000, a person died after falling into a hot spring; and in June 2016, a man strayed from a designated path and slipped and fell into a different hot spring.
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CNN’s Danielle Sills and Tina Burnside contributed to this report.
