Lesley Lorenz

Foot Found Floating in False Creek

Eleven Feet have now surfaced in the waters of the Paicific North West. August 29, 2011, the latest foot made it’s way to the busy Vancouver harbour of False Creek. Vancouver Police now take up the chase to solve the running-shoe encased mystery. While they join the RCMP in their public statements that no foul play is suspected – disarticulation is a natural process in the water, and the shoes do float – it still seems incredibly optimistic to believe that it’s all just a great big coincidence that 11 feet have been found in these waters but there are no similar occurences in other locations around the world. Speculation amongst the public seems to point to something sinister, or at least unusual…

More info on past findings:

A 10th foot has washed ashore on the Pacific Coast, near Tacoma.

Police believe the foot, encased in a boy’s size 6 Ozark Trail hiking boot, to belong to a youth or a young adult. The shoe was sold in North America, at Walmart stores between 2004 and 2005.
Information is being shared between Washington State Police and the RCMP. 7 of the feet were found in BC waters. Two sets of feet match, one set belonging to a female. Only one foot has been identified so far.

None of the cases has yet turned up evidence of foul play.

Latest human foot washes up on West Coast

A tourist walking along a stretch of beach in Whidbey Island, Wash. found a human foot on Friday, Aug. 28, 2010.

The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER — A human foot has washed up on another West Coast beach, but this time in Washington state.

The right foot was found by a tourist on Whidbey Island, about 50 kilometres north of Seattle, on Friday morning.

“Based on the size, we’re estimating it belongs to either a female or a juvenile,” Island County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Det. Ed Wallace said in an interview. “Based on the condition, we’re estimating it’s been in the water less than two months.”

He said the foot was found without a shoe or a sock, and the tourist was quite startled by the discovery.

Wallace said based on the information police have gathered, they don’t believe the foot matches any missing persons cases in the area.

Officers plan to reach out to surrounding jurisdictions, including B.C., to see if any of their cases might fit.

Seven feet have been found on B.C. shores since August 2007.

The most recent discovery was last October in Richmond. That foot was linked to a Vancouver-area man who had been reported missing in January 2008.

One other foot found in B.C. has also been identified. It belonged to a man thought to have committed suicide.

RCMP have said all of the feet separated from the bodies naturally in the water and foul play is not suspected in any of the cases.

The missing feet mystery brought international attention to B.C., as people around the world speculated on what could be causing the feet to turn up.

One other foot washed up in Washington state in August 2008.

Wallace said police on Whidbey Island are used to bodies washing up on shore, but not individual feet.

“Based on where we sit in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the currents, we’ve had complete bodies wash up before, partial bodies wash up before, we’re just in that pathway,” he said.

He said the foot is almost complete, though there are a few bones missing from the toes.

“There’s no trauma to it, it does not look like it’s been severed,” he said.

Wallace stressed the investigation is still early and officers are not ruling anything out.

Discoveries

The first foot was discovered on August 20, 2007, on Jedediah Island, by a girl visiting from Washington. The girl found the foot when she picked up a shoe and opened the sock, finding the foot. The foot was that of a man, and was found wearing a size 12 Adidas shoe and a sock. It is thought to have become disarticulated due to submerged decay. This kind of shoe was produced in 2003 and distributed mainly in India.

The second foot was discovered by a couple on August 26 on Gabriola Island. It was also that of a man, and also became disarticulated due to decay. It was waterlogged and appeared to have been taken ashore by an animal. It probably floated ashore from the south. This shoe was produced in 2004 and sold worldwide, and the type has since been discontinued.

The third foot was discovered on February 8, 2008, on Valdes Island. It was also a man’s right foot and was wearing a sneaker and a sock. This shoe was sold in Canada or the United States between February 1, 2003, and June 30, 2003.

The fourth foot was discovered on May 22 on Kirkland Island, an island in the Fraser Delta between Richmond and Delta, British Columbia. It was also wearing a sock and sneaker. It is thought to have washed down the Fraser River, having nothing to do with the ones found in the Gulf Islands. This right foot was of a woman. The shoe was a New Balance sneaker manufactured in 1999.

The fifth foot was on June 16, floating in water near Westham Island, part of Delta. It was found floating in the water by two hikers. It has been confirmed that the left foot found on June 16 on Westham Island and the right foot found February 8 on Valdes Island belonged to the same man.

Another foot was discovered on August 1, 2008, by a camper on a beach near Pysht, Washington. It was covered in seaweed. The site of the discovery was less than 16 kilometers from the international border in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Testing confirmed that the right foot was human. Police say the large black-top, size 11 athletic shoe for a right foot contains bones and flesh. This was the first foot of the series to be found outside of British Columbia. The RCMP and Clallam County Sheriff’s Department agreed on August 5 that the foot could have been carried south from Canadian waters.

Another foot was discovered on November 11, 2008, in Richmond. The foot was in a shoe that was found floating in the Fraser River. The shoe was described as a small New Balance running shoe, possibly a woman’s shoe. A forensic DNA profiling analysis indicated that it was a genetic match to the foot discovered on May 22 on Kirkland Island.

In July 2008 it was announced that one foot had been identified by Vancouver police as belonging to a man who was depressed and probably committed suicide. His identity was withheld on request of his family.

On October 28, 2009 another foot had been inside a running shoe found on a beach in Richmond.

Sixth foot hoax

The sixth “foot”, which was discovered on June 18, 2008, on Tyee Spit near Campbell River on Vancouver Island, was a hoax. The hoax was a “skeletonized animal paw” which was put in a sock and shoe and then stuffed with dried seaweed. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have begun an investigation into the hoax, and an arrest could result in charges of public mischief.

Theories

The series of discoveries has been called “astounding” and “almost beyond explanation”, as no other body parts have turned up. The discoveries have caused speculation that the feet may be those of people who died in a boating accident or a plane crash in the ocean. One explanation is that some of the feet are those of four men who died in a plane crash near Quadra Island in 2005 and whose bodies have not been recovered, though one of the feet has been determined to be from a female. Foul play has also been suggested, although none of the first four feet contained evidence of tool marks. This does not rule out foul play, however; it is possible that the bodies could have been weighted down and disposed of, and the feet are separating due to natural decay.

Determining the origin of the feet is complicated because ocean currents may carry floating items long distances, and because currents in the Strait of Georgia may be unpredictable. A foot may float as far as 1,000 miles (1,600 km). Also, human feet have a tendency to become adipocere (a soap-like substance formed from body fat), which makes it hard for forensic scientists to find clues. Under optimal conditions, a human body may survive in water for as long as three decades, meaning that the feet may have been floating around for years.

Level of rarity

Finding human remains on a beach is not uncommon. Storms may erode old burial sites and wash the debris out to sea where it is subsequently found, although this in particular would mainly reveal bones. In addition, missing people are common, and people fall off vessels at sea on occasion. Decomposition may separate the foot from the body because the ankle is relatively weak, and the buoyancy caused by air either inside or trapped within a shoe would allow it to float away.] According to SFU entomologist Gail Anderson, extremities such as the hands, feet, and head often detach as a body decomposes in the water, although they rarely float.

However, finding feet and not the rest of the bodies has been deemed unusual. Finding two feet has been given “million to one odds” and “an anomaly”. The finding of the third foot made it the first time three such discoveries had been made so close to each other. The fourth discovery caused speculation about human interference and, statistically, was called “curious”.

 

Locations of the Feet

 

Table of Discoveries