A Tacoma, Washington, man found a gift-wrapped severed human toe while celebrating Father’s Day at a beach with his wife and two small children.
While exploring the beach at Dash Point State Park for feathers on June 15, Kevin Ewing stumbled upon a weathered package containing a small pine box wrapped in green cloth and secured with yellow string.
Assuming it was a lost Christmas present, Ewing opened it, eventually finding a severed adult human big toe, reported the Federal Way Mirror.
“Initially, I was very shocked,” Ewing recounted to the Federal Way Mirror regarding the decayed toe. “It took me a moment to process and think, ‘Is this really what I believe it is?’ Once I realized what I had found, I set everything down.”
Nearby, Ewing spotted a dead seagull that appeared to be mutilated. He is unsure if the two are connected.
Before bringing the toe to police, he took pictures of his gruesome find, which he shared with the Federal Way Mirror.
DNA testing is being performed on the excised appendage to see if the toe can be matched to its owner.
“Finding something like that isn’t something you anticipate every day, or ever, especially on Father’s Day with your family,” Ewing noted, expressing relief that he was the one who discovered it rather than someone who might have been deeply disturbed by the incident.
Ewing said he now keeps wondering if the toe belonged to a missing person, someone who may have been killed, or some disturbed person who cut it off for reasons unknown.
“Just very odd. The toe definitely did not look like it was amputated. It definitely didn’t look like a surgeon had taken it off,” he said. “It didn’t look like a very clean medical cut.”
