Foot found on Whidbey beach remains unidentified

A human foot in a boot that washed ashore on Jetty Island in Everett this week isn’t that unusual an event, but it’s still a bit of a mystery.

Beachcombers have been finding feet on shores in the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia for years and many of the feet’s owners have never been identified.

Even Whidbey Island is part of the grisly phenomenon.

Island County Coroner Robert Bishop said he is still storing a foot that a vacationer found eight years ago on a Cranes Landing beach, which is on the east side of Central Whidbey.

It was sent to the University of North Texas, which runs the Center for Human Identification, where the DNA profile was taken and then run through the CODIS database. No match has been found.

At the time of the foot’s discovery, the coroner estimated it had been in the water for less than two months. He said it likely belong to a woman or a young person.

The unusual thing about the foot, Bishop said, is that it didn’t come in a shoe. Investigators hypothesized that feet tend to come ashore because shoes — especially athletic shoes — act as flotation devices.

CNN reported last March that the 14th foot in a decade washed ashore in Canada. Nine of the 14 feet were identified and no foul play was suspected.