'Thong Man' found dead at bottom of Big Bend cliff
There was apparently no sign of his bicycle....
Joseph Gottschalk, a self-described exhibitionist who invited attention by bicycling San Antonio's streets in nothing but a thong, was found dead this weekend at the bottom of a remote West Texas cliff.
Big Bend National Park officials said hikers spotted some clothing near a bluff's edge, some 30 feet from the South Rim trail, Saturday afternoon.
Peering down a steep drop, the hikers saw Gottschalk's naked body on a wide ledge about 100 feet below, park spokesman David Elkowitz said.
A search-and-rescue team used pulleys to retrieve Gottschalk's corpse. Afterward, a mule carried it to the Chisos Mountains basin, where a Brewster County justice of the peace examined it Sunday.
The fall is what appears to have killed Gottschalk, officials said, but the cause of death remains under investigation. Rangers said Monday that they found no sign of foul play or any note near the cliff.