Human foot bones and a shoe discovered buried in Prosser yard

Investigators are trying to determine how a human foot ended up buried in a Prosser yard.

Someone unearthed foot bones and the remains of a shoe Wednesday morning when they were digging a hole for a fence post near Wine Country Road and the Yakima River, said Coroner Bill Leach.

Prosser police were called to investigate.

Washington State Forensic Anthropologist Kathy Taylor confirmed that the bones were from a human foot.

The Washington State Patrol Major Crime Team excavated the site, and found a small number of bone fragments, but found nothing larger.

The Benton County Coroner’s Office also was called in to help.

Little is known about how the bones might have ended up in the yard. At the moment Leach said there isn’t more than speculation.

“The only big bones that were found were foot bones,” he said. “We know that they’re several years old, but we don’t know if they’re 10 years or 100 years old.”

And it appears some animal bones were found mixed in with the human bone fragments.

The bones were sent over to Taylor who will determine the age and other possible clues about their origins, Leach said. It’s unclear how long that could take.