Mystery Monster Washed Up; Human Feet Washing Ashore

The mystery monster of Montauk is already yesterday's news. The Montauk Monster disappeared this weekend and, outside of Montauk, the world may not notice. That's because something even odder- and more gruesome- has washed ashore on the west coast Friday. A human foot clad in a black athletic shoe.

Mystery Monster Missing

Mystery Monster missing? With all the hype over the Montauk Monster, how could it disappear?

The mystery Monster of Montauk washed up on the beach last week and has been an internet sensation ever since. Speculation that the Montauk Monster might be a photoshop hoax even led to its own faux photgraphy portfolio, including a photo of the mystery Monster posing with Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Government officials spoke publicly to deny any association between the mystery monster and the Plum Island Animal Research Center, a Homeland Security facility a short distance from the beach where the Montauk Monster surfaced.

And now? The mystery monster is gone. Vanished. Disappeared. In a plot worthy of the X-Files, the mystery Monster of Montauk was lying in the woods decomposing one day and gone the next.

Eric Olsen, the real estate agent and surfer who removed the Montauk Monster from the beach last week, told the East Hampton Star that he left the mystery monster's rotting carcass in the woods near a friend's house to decompose. Olsen planned to sell the mystery monster's bones to an art dealer for artistic enhancement and ultimate sale to one of the dealer's clients.

When Olsen returned to the woods Sunday, the mystery monster's carcass was gone.

As a parent who has seen her children's pet graveyard raided by maurauding beasts, I have a solid guess as to what might have happened to the mystery Monster of Montauk's rotting carcass. But whether an animal in search of dinner or an alien from outer space is responsible, or even a profiteering thief, the Montauk Monster is missing.