Grim Discovery on Vashon Island
An unidentified man's remains were found stuffed inside a wooden box after washing ashore.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The badly decomposed and horribly mutilated body of an unknown man, crushed into a wooden box and thrown high and dry by the tide on the shores of Vashon Island, was discovered Saturday afternoon by an Indian fisherman. The man made his way to Tacoma as fast as possible in his canoe and reported the matter to the Pierce county coroner. Coroner Snyder of King county was immediately notified, and early this morning Deputy Coroner Hill and Deputy Sheriff Leighton left for the scene. That the man was murdered is very evident, and the advanced state of decomposition suggests he had been dead for some time. The body will be taken to Seattle tonight.
“The badly decomposed and horribly mutilated body of an unknown man, crushed into a wooden box and thrown high and dry by the tide.”
Unsolved deaths along the shores of the Puget Sound remain a chilling reality of maritime life. Today, Vashon Island is a quiet residential community, but its isolated beaches have long held secrets cast up by the tide.
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