By Pepper Fisher
PORT ANGELES – On Wednesday, the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office posted on social media that their investigation into a woman’s shoe containing a human foot, found on the beach near the mouth of the Elwha River, would now include a crowdfunding campaign to cover the cost of an advanced DNA forensic test to try to solve the identity of the woman.
The comments poured in, with many people wondering why law enforcement is crowdfunding to pay for an investigation. “Isn’t that why we pay taxes?”, some asked. We reached out to the Sheriff’s Office to get some answers.
First, let’s take a quick look at why so many feet have been found inside shoes on our beaches over the years. In 2021, when the shoe in question was found, National Geographic reported that since 2007, nearly two dozen human feet had been found in sneakers on the coasts of the Salish Sea in the U.S. and Canada.
The occurrences often prompt speculation that some kind of serial killer may be on the loose, but investigators in many cases have been able to link the body parts to people involved in accidents or suicides.
But why is it always shoes with feet? Karan Raj, a surgeon with the National Health Service in the United Kingdom, says it has to do with how sea scavengers break down bodies and modern sneaker design. When a human corpse sinks to the bottom of the ocean, it’s quickly set upon by crabs and other scavengers. Raj says some of the softest parts of us are the tissues and ligaments around our ankles.
“As scavengers chow down on this, the foot will detach pretty quickly from the rest of the body. The reason it happens more since 2007 is because of a change in sneaker design. Over the last few decades, shoes have become more buoyant. As a result, we could be seeing more severed feet wash up on our shores.”
That answers the shoe question. To find out why local investigators are resorting to crowd funding, we spoke with Sgt. Amy Bundy at the Sheriff’s Office. She says that, despite a diligent investigation which included a standard DNA study, the woman’s identity has remained a mystery. With few leads for investigators to pursue, the case eventually went cold.
Bundy says the next step, a DNA genealogy study could take a year or more for specialized investigators to get to. Cold cases go to the back burner.
“They actually said, ‘We’re not doing it right now’, because their backlog is so far back.”
Sgt. Bundy says it isn’t a matter of money, it’s about solving the identity of the remains in a timely manner.
“Well, yeah. If you want to wait on the State Crime Lab for however many year backlog they are. That’s not actually us getting answers, or family members getting answers to the results of their loved ones that may have gone missing.”
Enter, the private company known as Othram.
“And so, in order to save the taxpayers, this company, Othram Labs, does a crowd funding to help support the costs. They do it for us. If this company is willing to crowdfund on behalf of this person’s family and whoever it is, on behalf of the Sheriff’s Office, for us to solve this, we embrace that support. It saves the taxpayers money.”
Anyone with information that could aid in the investigation is encouraged to contact the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office by calling the Tip Line at 360-417-2540 and referencing agency case 2021-00023819.
Click here to go to the crowdfunding page.
(Photo: Liam MacNamara)