Muddy military mystery solved: Dog tags found buried in WA to be reunited with owner in Arizona

TACOMA, WA - A man made a spectacular find in the middle of a muddy field: a veteran's dog tags.

The only thing is that veteran lives hundreds of miles away and it's not quite clear how they even ended up there in the first place -- there's also an Arizona connection to this story.

"This site was dumped on between '66 and '72, that's how old they could be," said Dan Norwood.

It's a military mystery hidden in a muddy haystack.

"Out of all this whole area in this whole site that was dredged from the port, I found these little things," he said.

And the twinkle is what caught Norwood's eye.

"I saw a glimmer, a little shine and I went over to them."

Norwood says he found the dog tags while working excavation on a site in Fife last year, creating extra storage for the port.

'I washed them off and cleaned them up a little bit and there was the name."

Debra K. Dennis. But who is she? And where is she? And why were her dog tags buried dozens of feet under mud and muck?

"I want to know the story of how they got here, where she lost them, if she lost them, if she threw them overboard, whatever.. I just want to know," said Norwood.

FOX 13 in Seattle did some digging of their own and found Debra's daughter, Courtney Muir, who lives just 30 minutes away from where Norwood found the dog tags!

"It's super random.. my mom was in the Army a long time ago, so for someone to find it and then find me is amazing!"

Muir says her mother now resides in Arizona and she can't wait to share the good news.

"I think she's gonna be blown away. I mean I would love to ask her how they got lost! It's weird for them to end up somewhere in the mud!" said Norwood.

The case of the muddy military mystery.. now solved.

"So what are the chances that you would find two tiny little dog tags? In 110 acres? A billion to one. I don't know something like that.. astronomical!" said Norwood.