FEDERAL WAY, Wash. — The mystery of a toe found in a box at Dash Point State Park is no longer afoot.
According to the Public Health – Seattle & King County, the toe was found to have been medically amputated, and NOT related to a death, an investigation found.
There will be no further investigation by the King County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Here’s what happened:
While walking on Dash Point beach on Father’s Day, a Tacoma man stumbled upon a gift-wrapped box with a human toe inside.
“I found what looked like a little Christmas package is a little square box wrapped in green cloth and yellow string,” Kevin Ewing said.
Ewing thought it was a prayer box or message in a bottle-type thing at first, but it ended being the unexpected.
“Sat there in shock for a few seconds and then realized this looks like you know, a severed human toe,” he recalled.
He says the toe was wrapped in white cloth next to a feather, grass, sage and tobacco.
“A lot of things are going through my head like - where is the rest of the body? Like, did this wash in from the tide, or the water? Did somebody leave this here intentionally to be found?”
Ewing says he took photos of the box and told a park ranger immediately.
He says he also found a dead, mutilated seagull not too far from the box. He’s unsure if the two are related.
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