Man makes horrifying discovery after noticing 'toes sticking out the ground' in garden
Niamh Shackleton
Featured Image Credit: KSAT 12
A man made a rather gruesome discovery while renovating his home.
The Florida resident was doing some work on his backyard when he spotted something sticking out of the ground.
Upon further investigation, the man realized what was protruding out of the ground was in fact human toes.
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A woman who was helping the homeowner with the renovations recalled the moment they made the discovery on March 13.
She said: "We were working inside the house and then the owner came to us and said ‘Hey, there is something here. We have to call 911. I said OK. I was shook."
The unidentified woman continued to tell News4Jax: "[The toes] were all black and stuff. But I guess that was from decomposing.
"I just hope that everything gets solved. My reaction to this is just craziness. I would never expect this, especially at a house that I am working at."
The homeowner, who also didn't wish to be identified, was sprucing up his property before renting it out to a new tenant.
Police are yet to confirm who the remains found in the backyard belong to, but the homeowner has expressed his condolences to the family.
"I want to offer my condolences to the young person or to the person they found at my property," he said.
"No family at all should have to go through that at all. That’s the first thing I want to say. No family should have to go through that.
"I don’t know who that is, I don’t know what the situation is."
As per a Jacksonville County Sheriff’s police report, a deputy who responded to the call 'observed two feet sticking up out of the ground'.
The body was then dug up and taken to Duval County Medical Examiner’s Office.
The following day a forensic team arrived and erected blue tents as they examined the area for clues, New York Post reports.
It's expected that it could take police 'days' to accurately ID the body as they try and work out what happened to the person.
According to News4Jax, on Thursday (March 14) some people came by the property hoping to find out if this person was their loved one who’d been missing for some time.
It was last reported that the case is pending the medical examiner’s final report.
UNILAD has contacted Jacksonville's Sheriff T.K. Waters for updates on the investigation.