Officials from Yellowstone National Park stated on Friday that a piece of a human foot that was discovered in a shoe that was floating in a hot spring earlier this week is thought to be connected to the passing of a person who occurred one month ago.
The fatality that occurred on July 31 is being examined, but park authorities have said in a statement that they do not suspect foul play in any way. The statement did not include any specifics about how the death is thought to have occurred, the name of the individual who passed away, or explain why the authorities do not suspect any kind of foul play in connection with the incident.
According to USA Today, an employee discovered the sneaker on Tuesday and was able to retrieve it from the Abyss Pool at the park.
(Heads Up!) On Aug. 16, an employee found part of a foot, in a shoe, floating in Abyss Pool, located in the West Thumb Geyser Basin in the southern part of Yellowstone National Park. An investigation by Yellowstone law enforcement officers is ongoing. https://t.co/xlXmdHkXBk pic.twitter.com/bLo51IYEEr
— Yellowstone National Park (@YellowstoneNPS) August 19, 2022
On the morning of August 11, a man from Maryland contacted the National Park Service to report that he and his family had seen a shoe floating in the hot spring with the sole facing up. The finding had spurred him to call the National Park Service.
Chris Quinn, who lives in Pasadena, Maryland, said in an interview that he had provided the park service with a photograph of the shoe.
The authorities at Yellowstone National Park are conducting an investigation into the finding of part of a foot that was discovered floating in a shoe in the Abyss Pool hot spring in June of 2015. The image exhibited here is from June of 2015.
In an email, the park’s spokeswoman, Linda Veress, said that the authorities were unable to establish whether or not the shoe that was recovered was the same style of shoe that was shown on Quinn’s foot.
According to park authorities, the depth of Abyss Pool is 53 feet (16 meters), and the temperature is around 140 degrees Fahrenheit (60 Celsius). Abyss Pool is located west of the West Thumb section of Yellowstone Lake.
Yellowstone National Park officials are investigating after a park employee spotted part of a foot in a shoe, floating in a hot spring in the southern part of the park, officials said Thursday. https://t.co/iJWb1ar8du
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 18, 2022
Visitors to the park are cautioned to remain on the boardwalks and paths when in thermal zones. This is because some of the pools and springs in these locations have a thin crust that is easily broken that covers the hot and occasionally corrosive water underneath.
Since 1890, there have been at least 22 reported deaths in and near the 3,471-square-mile (9,000-square-kilometer) national park that have been attributed to injuries sustained from hot springs, according to authorities from the park.
The most recent fatal accident occurred in June of 2016, when a man from Portland, Oregon, was visiting the park’s Norris Geyser Basin. He was walking down a boardwalk when he lost his footing on some gravel and plunged into a hot, acidic spring. There were no major human remains were found.
With the exception of the year 2020, when it was temporarily shut down because of the pandemic, the nation’s first national park has had more than 4 million visits per year on average in recent years.
The whole park was evacuated for a portion of the month of June due to the historic floods. Both the northern and northeastern entrances to the park are still inaccessible to motorized traffic.
This story syndicated with permission from For the Love of News