Small book of poems and cash found but mystery remains over foot in Yellowstone hot spring

Park staff found partial foot inside a shoe in Abyss Pool in park’s West Thumb Geyser Basin last August

A missing man whose foot was found floating in a hot pool at Yellowstone National Park last summer left no suicide note in his car, investigators say, though officers have found his laptop, notebooks and handwritten poems, new documents reveal.

The documents were released on Tuesday by National Park Service officials in connection with the death of 70-year-old man identified as Il Hun Ro in November.

Park staff found the partial remains of Ro’s foot, still inside a shoe, in Abyss Pool in the park’s West Thumb Geyser Basin last August.

Officials had then concluded that whatever happened to Ro occurred on the morning of 31 July, but that nobody saw it.

Ro was identified through a DNA analysis.

According to the documents released on Tuesday, investigators determined that Ro stayed at The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, about an hour’s drive north of the basin, on the night of 30 July, reported CBS News.

His car, a Kia Niro crossover SUV, was the only visitor’s car left parked near the Abyss Pool overnight.

Inside the car officials found his wallet with his driver’s licence and $447, a photo album, notebooks and a book of poems with handwritten notes, the documents said.

While the poems and notes weren’t written in English, investigators using Google Translate found nothing suggesting a suicide note.

Abyss Pool is 53 feet (16 metres) deep and about 140 degrees Fahrenheit (60 degrees Celsius), according to a report in the Associated Press.

In such springs, hot water cools as it reaches the surface and then sinks as it is replaced by hotter water from below.

This circulation of water prevents it from reaching the temperature needed to set off an eruption like those that happen in the Yellowstone park’s geysers.