Severed Feet Still Washing Ashore in British Columbia

Since August of 2007, severed human feet - still wearing shoes - have been washing ashore in British Columbia's Georgia Strait, which separates Vancouver Island from the mainland. Just the first few incidents were enough to generate sensational news coverage. But since then authorities have been unable to identify any of the recovered feet, or explain where they're coming from. And the feet have continued to wash ashore. Just this week, the fifth and sixth feet were discovered within two days of each other. (Indicating just how out of hand the situation has gotten, the sixth foot was quickly discovered to be a hoax. Someone apparently placed the paw of an animal skeleton in the shoe, wrapped the whole thing in seaweed and left it on the beach.)

Severed feet washing up on beaches tend to get people's attention, and a number of theories have been advanced by the public. Many in British Columbia think the feet are the work of a serial killer, or perhaps the result of gangland murders.

This idea that there has to be some diabolical pattern behind the feet was boosted by the fact that the first three feet were all from men, and were all right feet. However this pattern has been broken since then. The fourth foot was that of a woman, and unconfirmed reports indicate that the fifth, found near the town of Ladner on the Fraser River delta, was a left foot.

Authorities have discounted the crazed killer theories, largely because they've been unable to tie the feet to any local missing persons cases. Also, while they've been able to isolate DNA from at least some of the feet, so far they haven't been able to successfully match it to anyone. Even the original identification of the third foot as male isn't entirely accepted.

The more popular theory among professionals and ocean experts is that the source is a ship or plane wreck somewhere. As the sunken bodies decompose, the theory goes, feet are becoming detached and drifting ashore. Proponents point to the fact that all of the feet have been wearing sneakers of various kinds. The sneakers would tend to protect the foot from being eaten by marine predators and, once it had detached from the body, the sneaker would provide buoyancy. Given that currents in the strait tend to form a huge counterclockwise loop, the feet could end up washing ashore over a wide area.

And that's one point that's worth noting. While mainstream news coverage makes it sound as though the feet are all washing ashore in a particular place, in fact they've been scattered all over the strait. They've turned up on islands, and on both coasts. The most recent two discoveries, at Ladner and at Tyee Spit, are about 115 miles apart. (Although given that the Tyee Spit foot proved to be a hoax, the two most distant actual finds are closer to 55 miles apart.)

This much distance between the feet argues against the serial killer theory, but experts still disagree about where the feet are coming from. Some insist that they must be coming from local waters on the grounds that it would be difficult for that many severed feet to drift into the relatively protected waters of the strait from the Pacific. However, other experts contend they could easily be coming from the Pacific, or even from as far as the Asian coast.

In short, the severed feet continue to turn up, but answers have so far been very hard to come by. There are plenty of armchair investigators offering up theories, but nobody knows anything for sure.

Six Gruesome Discoveries:

1. August 20, 2007. Male right foot in a sock and size 12 Adidas shoe. Discovered on Jedediah Island in the middle of the strait.

2. August 26, 2007. Male right foot in a sock and size 12 Reebok shoe. Discovered on Gabriola Island along the eastern coast of Vancouver Island.

3. February 8, 2008. Male right foot in a sock and sneaker. Discovered on Valdes island, also along the eastern coast of Vancouver Island near Nanaimo.

4. May 22, 2008. Female right foot in a sock and running shoe. Discovered on Kirkland Island in the Fraser River delta south of Vancouver.

5. June 16, 2008. Left foot in a sock and shoe. Spotted floating in the water near Westham Island near the town of Ladner in the Fraser River delta south of Vancouver.

6. June 18, 2008. Right foot in about a size 10 black Adidas shoe. Discovered at Tyee Spit near the Campbell river on Vancouver Island. This foot was quickly discovered by the coroners service to actually be an animal paw placed in the shoe and wrapped in seaweed.