Clues Emerge in Case of Floating Severed Feet in Georgia Strait, British Columbia

The case of five severed feet that have washed ashore around the Georgia Strait in British Columbia is creepy enough, and just plain strange enough, that it's gotten attention from around the world. And as months have gone by without any clear answers from authorities, weird theories have abounded. (See this previous article for more background.)

Now, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have released a few previously unknown details and are asking the public for help in identifying the missing persons from whom the feet came.

According to CBC news reports, the RCMP have announced that DNA testing shows two of the feet, the third and fifth feet to be discovered, came from the same man. They also confirmed previously unconfirmed reports that the fourth foot, discovered in May of 2008, was that of a woman. However, there is still no indication of who the victims are.

The CBC report noted that authorities are working from a list of 243 possible male matches, but did not specify just where that list came from. Of the 243 possibles, 130 have now been eliminated.

One key detail released by the RCMP is apparently meant to shut down public speculation about a series of gangland mutilations or a deranged serial killer removing feet from his victims. The RCMP specified that they found no evidence that any of the feet were forcibly removed from the victims' bodies. The CBC quoted Constable Annie Lintau as saying, "We want to make it clear: there is no evidence that these feet had been severed. There were no tool markings and no visible sign of trauma." Lintau added, "It appears that these feet have naturally disarticulated from the bodies through natural process."

That would reinforce the prevailing theory that the feet are now emerging from the wreckage of a ship or airplane, bobbing to the surface within their buoyant running shoes and then being scattered around the Gulf Islands by currents.

One possible clue to the origin of the feet comes from the specific types of shoes found. While the shoes are ordinary running shoes that would be available almost anywhere, their specific model types can be dated. One was a man's Reebok running shoe of a type that first became available on March 1, 2004. The matching pair of men's shoes appear to have been produced in 2003, as was the first shoe found. The oldest shoe found is the woman's which appears to have been produced in 1999. Thus, if a single accident killed all the victims, it must have happened sometime after March of 2004. (One strong contender is a plane crash off Quadra Island in the strait in February of 2005 that killed five people, but there is still no direct evidence yet to tie the feet to that crash.)

The RCMP released photos of the shoes in the hope that someone might recognize shoes belonging to a missing loved one. But since the shoes are all fairly generic running shoes, that seems a long shot. Since DNA testing has so far been unable to identify any of the victims, it seems most likely that their DNA simply isn't in a database anywhere. Thus we may never be able to conclusively prove who the feet belonged to. But the word that they were not deliberately severed should at least start to quiet down some of the wilder speculation that's come to surround them.