Authorities at Yellowstone National Park have still not identified a human foot which was found floating in a hot pool in Yellowstone over three weeks ago.
Park spokesperson Linda Veress told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday that because authorities haven’t made a final identification of the appendage which was found bobbing in a shoe on August 16, she could not discuss the foot, the shoe, or anything about the case.
“After we have that information, we will release more details to the public,” Veress said.
In mid-August, the public affairs office said they believe the discovery of the foot is connected to an incident that occurred during the morning hours of July 31 at the Abyss Pool near the West Geyser Basin.
No foul play is suspected, officials said.
History Of Hot Water
Although the waters at the Abyss Pool are hot with temperatures reaching 140 degrees, they are nowhere close to the temperatures around the hottest thermal region in the park, Norris Geyser Basin, which can reach 456 degrees.
That’s where Oregon tourist Colin Scott was when he accidentally fell into the pool when he attempted to check the temperature in 2016.
Scott’s body was never retrieved. Rescuers later spotted the body, but a lightning storm thwarted recovery efforts. The next day, there was no trace of the body.
His death was thought to be quick and his body is believed to have been liquified by the acidic waters.
“In a very short order, there was a significant amount of dissolving,” Veress told CNN in 2016.
Grisly Death
It was a far more grisly accident for a 24-year-old who dove into the boiling Celestine Pool in Yellowstone in 1981, according to witnesses.
David Kirwan was able to get out of the water but was gravely injured.
His eyes, witnesses said, were totally white, as if blind, and his badly burned skin had already began peeling off.
When another man on the scene ran over and tried to remove one of Kirwan’s shoes, his skin started to flay off. Later, rangers found two large pieces of skin shaped like human hands next to the spring.
He died the next morning in a Salt Lake hospital.
At least 22 people have died from burns in the thermal pools of Yellowstone. That is the most common cause of death in the park followed by known bear maulings (12) and murders (8).
