05 January 2023 , 11:38
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Investigators trying to get to the bottom of why a foot was found floating in a pool have revealed they found handwritten poems nearby.
Police were stumped after a human foot, still inside a shoe, was found floating in Abyss Pool, in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, US, last summer.
Three cars were found empty nearby and unaccounted for, but two were promptly claimed by their owners. Authorities realised both the remaining car, a Kia Niro SUV, and the foot belonged to the same person, Il Hun Ro, 70, from Los Angeles.
Authorities have released new details about what was found in the vehicle - Ro's laptop, personal photos, maps of the park, his wallet containing $447, and a small book of handwritten poems.
Yellowstone National Park is popular all year round with visitors (VWPics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)The poems and notes weren't written in English, but investigators used Google Translate to decipher them, according to their reports.
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No evidence of a suicide note was found.
It was also discovered that he had stayed a night at the Canyon Lodge, about an hour away from the pool.
The pools around Yellowstone can be extremely dangerous, as the ground surrounding them is often very thin and the water can reach temperatures of 60C (140F).
The park is famous for its hot springs and geysers (Getty Images/iStockphoto)Abyss Pool, where Ro's foot was found, is about 50ft deep.
Although it is still unclear how Ro died, authorities said they didn't suspect foul play.
A park visitor first reported a black shoe floating in the pool to a tour driver, who in turn reported it to a park ranger.
In the report, the ranger said: “I walked to the boardwalk to the scene and saw a black shoe, approximately three to four feet off the rim of the thermal feature, with what appeared to be a human bone inside of the shoe.
The park is also famous for its geysers although Abyss Pool does not regularly erupt due to currents (Getty Images/iStockphoto)“Additionally, we noticed a film and dark clumps floating on top of the pool".
The National Park Service warned: "Boiling water surges just under the thin crust of most geyser basins, and many people have been severely burned when they have broken through the fragile surface.
"Some people have died."
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Since the park opened in 1872, 22 deaths related to thermal features have been recorded.
In 2021, Colin Scott slipped and fell into the scorching water close to Porkchop Geyser in Yellowstone National Park.
The 23-year-old was cooked alive before the ferociously acidic waters dissolved his body, the Daily Star reported.