Charleston police investigators are looking for information from the public after a severed human foot was found Monday in a shoe at the city’s marina.
The foot, encased in a black sock in a teal Adidas Samoa shoe, sat on the dock for six days before anyone realized there were human remains in the footwear, the Post and Courier in Charleston reported. The grisly discovery came when the finder realized that what appeared to be a human bone was sticking out of the top of the shoe.
The newspaper reported that investigators believe that the foot and shoe were floating amid debris in the marina for some time. A worker clearing the debris tossed the shoe on the dock, where it stayed until the bone was spotted.
Charleston County Coroner Rae Wooten told the paper that a forensic anthropologist in her office confirmed the foot was human. She said investigators have been unable to determine the age, sex or ethnicity of the foot's owner, or how long it has been severed from the person's body.
Detectives have also been unable to match the foot to any missing person in the area, Wooten said. Officials from the state Department of Natural Resources also were unaware of any boating accident from which the foot could have washed up.
Wooten told Live 5 News in Charleston that the shoe could have surfaced after severe weather that blew through the area last week. She said the shoe was a man's size 9, though that does not mean that the foot belonged to a man.
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