Yellowstone National Park is this wild rugged place.

It's got huge beautiful mountains, lush forests, it's got wildlife, there are bears and

bison just roaming free.

So when you hear that there is an area of the park known as the Zone of Death, you might

think it means it's a place where you could fall off a cliff or get eaten by bears, I don't

know, maybe have some kind of bermuda triangle navigation issue, which just disappear off

the map.

But here's the thing, which you actually have to worry about in the Zone of Death is someone

murdering you and getting away with it.

I'm doing Therese and this is Atlas Obscura, celebration of the world's strange, incredible

and wondrous places and today we are taking you to a 50 square mile patch of Yellowstone

in Idaho that is perhaps the perfect place to commit the perfect crime.

We are going inside the park and outside the log.

When I was a little kid, we took a trip there to Yellowstone and I have a very vague recollection

of old faithful.

This is Brian Colt, these days he is a law professor at Michigan State.

I was pretty young at the time so I don't know if I actually remember it or if I just

remember remembering it.

Back when Brian was a kid, Yellowstone obviously didn't make much of an impression on him, but

little did he know the park would become a big part of his life.

Fast forward to 2003 when Brian was engaged in the endless quest facing all academics

trying to get tenure.

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