YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. — The human foot found in a geyser earlier this year in Yellowstone National Park has been identified as belonging to a California man who died in an incident at the park, National Park officials said Thursday.
Yellowstone law enforcement within the last three weeks used DNA analysis to positively identify the foot as belonging to Il Hun Ro, 70, from Los Angeles. Ro's family has been notified.
Park staff in August 2022 discovered part of a foot in a shoe floating in Abyss Pool, at West Thumb Geyser Basin. The investigation determined, "to the best of our knowledge," park officials said, that an "unwitnessed incident" involving only one person, now identified as Ro, happened the morning of July 31. They do not believe any foul play occurred but, based on the evidence, the circumstances surrounding Ro's death remain unknown.
The coroner's office and search and rescue from Teton County, Wyoming, and the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation assisted the National Park Service in the investigation, which has concluded.
Abyss Pool is located in the southern portion of Yellowstone National Park. Public information officer Morgan Warthin said the water temperature is 140 degrees and the pool is more than 50 feet deep, making it one of the deepest hot springs in Yellowstone.
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