Owner of toe found at Dash Point State Park is located

The case of the human toe found on June 15 at Dash Point State Park is closed after Washington State Patrol spokesperson Trooper Rick Johnson said the toe’s owner was found, and they wish to remain anonymous.

The King County Medical Examiner’s Office found that the toe was medically amputated and not related to a death, according to Public Health Seattle and King County Communications Specialist Sharon Bogan. Bogan said no further investigation from the medical examiner’s office will be done into the origins of the missing toe.

“The Medical Examiner’s office takes jurisdiction and conducts investigations into sudden, violent, unexpected and suspicious deaths,” Bogan said. “Because this is not related to a death, the KC Medical Examiner is not conducting further investigation nor providing additional details.”

As to whether human body parts washing up on King County beaches is a regular occurrence, Bogan said the medical examiner’s office has been informed of cases of body parts washing up on King County beaches very infrequently.

On June 15, Kevin Ewing from Tacoma said he, his two young kids and his wife were hanging out on the beach at the state park on Father’s Day when he walked ahead of his family to the tide line in search of feathers. Ewing said he walked all the way down to about the park’s property line when he found what looked like a Christmas package.

He found a little box wrapped in green cloth, with a yellow string tied around it like a bow, Ewing said. Ewing said he has Native American ancestry, so his first thought was that the package was a prayer bundle or maybe a message-in-a-bottle type of item.

Ewing said he removed the green cloth and found a pine box shut with tape. He opened it with his pocket knife and found a feather, grass that had been burned, sage, lavender, tobacco and a rag with something inside it. He said when he unwrapped the rag, he quickly realized it was not related to any common Native American practices he is aware of.

“I set the box down on the ground, I believe, and I used my knife to pick the rag up and open it, and it was a severed human big toe that was in there,” Ewing said. “At first I was very shocked, and it took me a few minutes to kind of be like, ‘is this what I think it is?’ Then once it dawned on me that that’s what it was, I set everything down.”

Ewing said he also observed a dead seagull near the box, which appeared to be mutilated. He was unsure if it was related, but the bird appeared to have been skinned and not killed normally. He said that at first, he thought the toe might actually be part of the seagull, but upon looking at the toe again, he knew it was definitely not.

“You don’t expect to find something like that every day, or any day, especially on Father’s Day, when you’re out with your family,” Ewing said.

Following his discovery, Ewing told a park ranger, and Washington State Patrol ultimately took over the case. The state patrol then sent the toe to the medical examiner’s office for investigation.