On June 10 at 9:24 a.m., Charles County Sheriff’s officers responded to the Charles County Landfill on Billingsley Road in Waldorf after an employee discovered what appeared to be a child’s foot in the compost yard. The employee immediately closed the gates. The landfill was closed to the public for about an hour and a half while police investigated.
Technicians from the Sheriff’s Office Forensic Science Unit responded and transported the remains to the Crime Lab, where they conducted a serology test and determined the blood in the tissue did not belong to a human. Technicians also compared the foot with a bear’s foot kept at the lab. While bear feet and human feet have similarities in bone structure, there are slight variations and the technicians were able to determine the foot at the landfill belonged to a bear. The landfill was closed to the public for about two hours during the investigation.