Cadaver dogs lead to dig site after severed foot found near Port Orchard

Cadaver-sniffing dogs have pinpointed a location near Port Orchard where a State Patrol crime-scene response team is painstakingly removing soil to see if there's a connection between what's buried there and a human foot in a hiking boot found Saturday by a construction crew.

Police used the dogs from a Northwest Disaster Search Team on Monday to look for any further signs of human remains after the foot was found.

"They'd seen the boot lying there for about a day or so, but hadn't thought much of it," said Deputy Scott Wilson, spokesman for the Kitsap County Sheriff's Office. "When one of them finally picked it up, he found a sock inside containing the remains of a human foot."

Police are checking missing persons reports while coroners and a forensic anthropologist examine the foot.

Wilson said the dogs zeroed in on a specific area on Monday. "We have strong reason to believe that there is something underneath that soil," he said. Authorities used an excavator to dig several feet, then called in the crime-scene team to continue the search with small tools "to make sure they don't destroy evidence," Wilson said.

He said the dogs indicated there may be human remains buried at that location.