Foot found floating in Yellowstone hot spring belonged to 70-year-old L.A. man who had died years earlier
A body discovered in hot spring two miles from the front door of the Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park has been identified as the body of a man who had died a decade earlier.
The body was found floating in a Yellowstone pool Sunday night.
Police told The Associated Press that officers and park rangers responded to the area of the pool at about 9 p.m. Sunday after a report of a body floating in the water.
They found the body floating in the pool around 10:30 p.m.
The woman who found the body identified the body to a park ranger and then called authorities.
Park rangers told police the man was 70 years old.
Police said the man had lived in Santa Clarita, California, and died in 2008 at the Grand Prismatic Spring at the same time as another man, who was also missing.
The man was known to family members only as “Larry.” The younger man is not being publicly identified because he is still considered missing, police said. Neither was he a relative, a friend or someone who worked at the park, police said.
An autopsy is planned on Tuesday. An autopsy on the man who died in 2008 is scheduled for early next week, according to a park news release.
The Grand Prismatic Pool is one of several hot springs inside the park. The park is known for its geysers, hot springs and hot mudpots.
The Grand Prismatic Pool, a hot spring in the southern section of the park, is a popular attraction. Since it opened in 1995, it has produced more than 500,000 gallons of the water that flows through the pool.
Other hot springs include the Grand Canyon Hot Springs in Canyon de Chelly National Park, the Mirror Pool in Grand Teton National Park and the Red Hot Pool in Yellowstone National Park.
Yellowstone is one of four national parks in the United States. It straddles Wyoming and Idaho.
The body has since been recovered.
“This is a very unfortunate incident,” said park superintendent Dan Burchman. “It does not reflect the best of who we are as a national park system and a great example of that is the way we have responded to what is a very tragic and hard day for our