PORT ANGELES — Bones and flesh inside a black hiking sneaker found on a Strait of Juan de Fuca beach are the remains of a human foot, Seattle laboratory analysts said Monday.
That makes it similar to five athletic shoe-clad feet found on beaches in British Columbia in the past year.
It was also determined that the foot — like the five in Canada — had come off by itself, discounting the possibility that it might have been cut off.
“It had been disarticulated and not mechanically removed,” Clallam County Undersheriff Ron Peregrin said.
“That means that it detached [in the water].
“It doesn’t really mean anything else as far as foul play.”
But, he added, “it doesn’t mean that foul play hasn’t happened.”
A DNA analysis will be made.
“We will run that against any missing persons and see if it matches anything, and then go from there,” said Clallam Prosecuting Attorney Deb Kelly, who also is the county coroner.
The DNA analysis will take up to eight weeks to complete, then more time will be required to compare the data with missing persons files, Kelly said.
Acting at the request of Kelly and the Clallam sheriff’s office, the King County Medical Examiner’s Office determined the human origin of the remains.
They were recovered Saturday from a beach at the former Silver King Resort, about 30 miles west of Port Angeles.
The other feet were found about 50 miles away, in and around the Strait of Georgia between Vancouver Island and the British Columbia mainland.
