Jetty Island washed-up foot identified as man missing since 2016
Feb 5, 2019, 12:16 PM
Antonio Neill disappeared in 2016, following a fight with a friend. (Snohomish County Sheriff's courtesy photo)
(Snohomish County Sheriff's courtesy photo)
A foot that washed up on Everett’s Jetty Island last month has been connected to a two-year-old missing person case.
RELATED: Foot discovered on Jetty Island in Everett
The medical examiner determined the foot belongs to Antonio Neill. He was 22 at the time he disappeared, in December of 2016. The Everett Herald reported back in April 2018 that he’d had a fight with the friend he was staying with on Cedar Street, in the city’s Riverside neighborhood.
He walked out of that home that night in just a T-shirt and jeans, and was never seen again. At the time, his mother, Jenny Neill told the Herald that she believed “something viciously wrong happened to him.”
Antonio had also struggled for years with drug and alcohol problems, according to his mother.
The exact cause and manner of his death has yet to be determined by the medical examiner.
Neill’s foot was originally discovered in early-January, when beach-goers on the south end of Jetty Island called 911 to report a boot with a foot inside. Marine Operations and Major Crimes determined the foot had been in the water for “quite a while.”
It’s actually not uncommon for human feet to wash ashore, but recent discoveries have been centered in British Columbia. A 14th foot was discovered in May 2018 on the east coast of Vancouver Island. Coroners say the feet are often found in a shoe, which protects them from the elements and nibbling sea creatures.
Detectives with the Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit will continue to investigate the case, and are asking anyone who might know what happened to Antonio to come forward.
