As if last week couldn’t get any more unsettling for Taylor Swift, human remains were found near her Rhode Island beach house. According to WJAR, police in Westerly, Rhode Island, found what appeared to be a human leg bone after receiving a call on Wednesday morning. The bone was collected and sent to the Rhode Island medical examiner’s office, but police don’t suspect any foul play. That has not stopped Swifties from doing their favorite thing: speculating about Taylor Swift.
Before a bone washed up near the singer’s house, true-crime-obsessed posters had already started to suspect that there’s a serial killer in New England. Prior to last week, 12 bodies had been found in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut in the span of a few months. Some of you already know where this is going: The remains found by Swift’s home would theoretically be the 13th incident. On the r/SerialKillers Reddit page, one user joked, “By her house. 13th body. 13 is known to be her number. Washing up? She sings a song that heavily implies dumping a body off a boat. She’s known to sing about personal experiences … Pls don’t sue me Taylor this is satire I am a big fan.”
To be clear, local authorities do not believe the remains found near Swift’s house are even connected to a murder, let alone a string of them. Westerly police chief Paul Gingerella told Fox News Digital that the bone found by Swift’s home has “nothing to do with any serial killer or any New England murderer.”
But at least one neighbor is wary. “I would definitely disagree with that. I think finding a leg is very suspicious,” Westerly resident Taylor Day told WJAR. “It was probably a couple football fields away from Taylor Swift’s house and the Ocean House. I would never expect anything like that — especially not in Watch Hill.”
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While it wouldn’t be surprising for there to be a big overlap between true-crime lovers and Eras tour attendees — two obsessive, detail-oriented communities — the stans over on r/TaylorSwift are, for the most part, being very respectful. Since Swift has been off the map recently, they need something to talk about, and it might as well be a body part found near the house immortalized in “the last great american dynasty.” A post discussing the situation features several people making references to Swift’s song, “no body, no crime,” a discussion about how a serial-killer pop star would be a good premise for a novel, and a detour in which people discuss the possibility of a different serial killer in Texas.
The best exchange, however, came from a few fans going back and forth about whether or not this story even has anything to do with Swift. “A couple football fields away is not near her home. Anything washed up on a shore can come from really really far away as well,” the first Swiftie wrote. “2 football feels adds up to 0.13 miles so that is actually very close lol,” another replied. This teed up a third commenter for the perfect punch line: “0.13 omg her mind!!!!!”
Swift obviously has bigger things going on at the moment than the leg bone that washed ashore near the house where she spends a few weeks every year. We are, however, rapidly approaching summer-party season, and hopefully this doesn’t cast a pall over her Fourth of July plans. The people need to see a Polaroid of Travis Kelce and one of the Haims eating Popsicles together!
