WASHINGTON, USA — Human feet have been washing ashore around the Salish Sea for decades.
Since 2007, at least 20 feet have been discovered, leading many people to question why this keeps happening. Investigators have closed most of the cases, but one case remains suspicious.
Antonio Neill goes missing
Antonio Neill was 22 years old when he disappeared on Dec. 12, 2016.
"We were best friends. We talked about everything. I was fairly young when I had Antonio in high school," said Jenny Doboszynski, Neill's mom. "I miss his laugh, his comfort, his voice. I miss everything about Antonio."
Neill was born and raised in Everett and struggled with addiction. In 2016, he celebrated one year of sobriety but relapsed that October. After that, he was not allowed to live at the sober house he was living in, so a friend offered up his couch on that December night.
Doboszynski remembers everything about the last day she heard from her son. She said Neill was last seen with his friend Andrew.
"We’ve always liked Andrew, he had come over to pick up Antonio," Doboszynski said. "I hugged Antonio and that was it."
Neill had a court appearance the following day, one that his mother knew he was planning to attend. But when she didn't hear from him that day, she started to worry.
"No matter what trouble Antonio has been in, he calls me. I didn’t hear from him that whole night," Doboszynski said. "A couple days go by, and nothing from Antonio; I am really starting to worry that something is not right."
The next day, Doboszynski received a call from a friend who said Neill and his friend, Andrew, were in some sort of altercation and Neill ran away.
"Christmas was coming and Antonio would not have missed Christmas," Doboszynski said. "Then I reported him missing."
Several weeks later, detectives made a discovery. Neill's green Volkswagen Jetta was found at an apartment complex in Lynnwood on Jan. 25, 2017. Authorities don't believe the car was stolen, as it was locked and the alarm was enabled.
Everett police went to the home where Neill was last seen alive but did not find any DNA belonging to him.
Police also interviewed the last person to see Neill alive, his friend, Andrew.
"He took a polygraph. He was told initially he passed, and then he was told there was a discrepancy with one of the questions, and the person who reviewed that initial polygraph said another test should be done, and when they went back to do that, he declined," said Sgt. Brad Brad Walvatne with the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office.
Although he was never charged in this case, he is still a person of interest, Walvatne said. KING 5 reached out to Andrew, but he declined to comment.
Two years passed before another discovery in the case - a human foot inside a boot.
Unsolved Northwest: Antonio Neill
"Obviously, we didn’t find Antonio for quite a while and then, in January 2019, somebody on Jetty Island came across a boot and found a foot in the boot," Walvatne said.
"I get a call from my detective and he sent me a picture of a boot. The boots Antonio had on when he left my house. They were black boots," Doboszynski said. "I was insistent that those are his socks. I bought those socks. Those are his boots and they must be brown because of the water. I knew it was him. I was at work. I was freaking out. Hysterics. I knew that was Antonio."
Detectives are treating Neill's death as a homicide.
"What’s weird about Jetty Island is that the house that Antonio went missing from is literally a five-minute walk to that river, and then the mouth of the river is where that island is," Doboszynski said.
Antonio's mother gets to meet people who found son's remains
Mark Campfield discovered the foot that was later identified as Neill's. He was beachcombing on Jetty Island with his family to celebrate the New Year.
"I want to meet the people who found it and thank them. An average person would probably walk past that and not even look twice," Doboszynski said. "Something drew them to it and they found my son. What little we have left of them."
Doboszynski was able to meet Campfield and thank him for bringing her the closure she was desperate for. The two officially met at the 10th Street boat launch in Everett. After introductions and long hugs, Campfield offered to show her where her son's remains were discovered.
"I just want to get justice for Antonio and I'll do whatever it takes," Doboszynski said to Campfield. "My boy didn't deserve this, so I can't thank you enough. Yeah, seriously, I can't thank you enough."
If Campfield hadn't found the boot, this would still be a missing persons case. The Snohomish County Sheriff's Office says it is an open and active investigation. Anyone with information about Neill's death is urged to contact SCSO and can remain anonymous.
Why do so many feet wash ashore in this region?
University of Washington Professor of Oceanography Dr. Parker MacCready told KING 5 last year that the phenomenon occurs due to three main factors: how bodies decompose in these waters, the buoyancy of the shoes and wind patterns in the region.
Salish Sea waters are very cold, the temperature usually does not exceed 55 degrees. According to MacCready, the cool water helps preserve what is left of the bodies that is not eaten by marine life.
That’s where the shoes come in. Most modern sneakers contain a lot of foam, which is hard for scavengers to eat, so they often stay intact, along with the feet inside them. They are also very buoyant and frequently float to the surface.
So, how do they end up on the shore? It primarily has to do with the wind.
“Anything that's floating and that protrudes a little bit above the surface of the water, whether it's, you know, a piece of trash or a foot in a sneaker or a dead bird, or something like that, they are pushed around by the wind,” MacCready said.
The wind speed is very fast compared to the speed of the water. So, the wind will push an object through the water faster than the current can move it.
Tanja Janjic is an identification analyst with the Coroners Service of British Columbia. She's proud of the work she does every day to bring closure to grieving families.
"[It's a] great feeling, fantastic feeling. Emotional? Yes. Hard? Yes," Janjic said.
As for the "mysterious" phenomenon, she says modern shoes act like a sort of "personal floatation device," which is why most of the feet that have washed up were found after the 2000s.
"The body decomposed and [the] body disarticulate fast in the water. It’s a process after we die. [The] body falls apart. And just because the shoes are [a] floatation device. No mystery. It’s interesting, but there’s nothing that is scary.”
For a deeper look into the identification process, watch the full interview with Janjic here:
When it comes to identifying the feet that wash ashore, the case turns to forensic DNA analysts, who work to extract DNA from the remains. Once they have their DNA profile, they then compare it to a national database to potentially find a match.
"The uniqueness of our unit is we don’t have ID, drivers license or family saying that’s someone there that they know," Janjic said. "We start from scratch. This is foot, bone, a skull, a mandible and we start from there, all the way up to saying this is so-and-so and they died in such-and-such way. It’s closure."
These missing person cases, murders and other mysteries are solvable. To submit a tip to the KING 5 Unsolved Northwest team, click here or fill out the form below.