Foot found floating in Yellowstone hot spring belonged to 70-year-old L.A. man
A woman found a wallet, ID and a hand-drawn picture of her late ex-husband, David Bissonnette, in a hot-spring pool at Yellowstone National Park on Friday.
The 65-year-old man’s body was found in the pool by a park worker who was installing an electric pump at the park pool. Park officials said he had not been there for several days.
In what could be the first homicide in the park area since 1996, park police say Thursday that Bissonnette was found about 10 a.m. with a pool scooter nearby.
He was taken to the park hospital where he was pronounced dead. Park police spokeswoman Sgt. Melissa Heflin had no other information about the death of the man who was dating his ex-wife, Patricia Zayas, 45.
“They have their own pools in the park – they are not in our area,” Heflin said. “They are not in our jurisdiction.”
The park pool is one of the few places in Yellowstone National Park where people can swim. Park spokesman Matt Gindhart said an autopsy was not yet completed.
He flicked a cigarette butt toward the park’s main entrance – the entry to Yellowstone Lake.
“Sorry. This is a park,” he said. “We just don’t have any smoking here.”
David Bissonnette on file photo; Bissonnette is said to have had a stroke five years ago and may have had a stroke Friday in Yellowstone National Park. (Photo: Courtesy photo)
The park has its own hospital and coroner’s office for those cases.
Heflin said park police are not investigating the death.
“The park does not own the property where the body was found.” But the park has a contract with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which monitors the park for law enforcement and enforcement of regulations, she said.
Bissonnette also was an Army veteran and served in the Marine Corps in the Vietnam era.
He and Zayas had been together for 15 years before he filed for divorce and her for years later. He said he was going to file for divorce again on Wednesday, according to court records.
He was an employee of a computer company in Southern California,
