Vancouver BC Foot Mystery: Sixth Foot Appears; It's a Hoax

DBKP UPDATE
UPDATE on the DBKP UPDATE




The barrage of body parts continues in British Columbia, with the sixth foot washing ashore.

* Canadian Police Baffled: The Case of the Grisly Right Feet
* Canadian Police Still Baffled as Feet Keep Washing Ashore

A sixth human foot was found in the south coast of British Columbia Wednesday following the discovery of a fifth just two days earlier.

A Campbell River resident walking on a beach on Tyee Spit found the foot around 10 a.m. PT and reported it to police, the RCMP said.

"It was a right foot in a size 10 running shoe, RCMP Const. Annie Linteau said in a new release Wednesday afternoon.

Malone said the foot was clearly visible inside the shoe.

"I got the chills right away — really grossed out," Malone told the CBC.

UPDATE: 6:09 PM Thursday June 19 2008 The British Columbia Coroner's Service says a prankster is responsible for a sixth foot that apparently washed ashore on the south coast of the province. The latest foot was discovered Wednesday, when a woman walking along a beach near Campbell River, B.C., on Vancouver Island said she spotted some bones protruding from a size 10 black Adidas running shoe. Five other feet have been found in the Vancouver area since last August, including four right feet and a left foot. But the coroner's service says a forensic pathologist and anthropologist have examined the latest foot and it's actually an animal paw that was inserted into the shoe, along with a sock packed with dried seaweed. Wherever there are mysteries, hoaxes are sure to be close behind.

This story is important in another respect. A theory:

"The object will ultimately be examined by a forensic pathologist in attempts to determine the source of the foot and if it is related to other feet recently found," Linteau said.

'This is too bizarre. One has to suspect criminal activity.'

Three years ago, a small float plane took off from Tyee Spit and crashed 10 kilometers away from where the foot was found Wednesday. Four of the five people on that plane remain unaccounted for.

Linteau said police are looking at the possibility that the foot found Wednesday could have belonged to one of the crash victims.

"We're exploring the possibilities that it could be people who may have been drowned. It could be missing fishermen. It could be the remains of people who may have died in a plane crash," she said."

But wouldn't the DNA have revealed this likelihood 11 months ago when the first of the feet was found?

But then from the same spokesperson, we learn this:

"The sixth foot turned up Wednesday -- a right foot in a man's size 10 black Adidas athletic shoe, police said. As in the previous cases, however, immediate answers as to the foot's origin eluded detectives.

"We are exploring the possibility that it could be people who may have drowned," said Annie Linteau, a spokeswoman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. "It could be missing fishermen. It could be the remains of people who may have died in a plane crash."

When asked about the suspicion of foul play, Linteau noted that the first four feet contained no tool marks and were therefore deemed not to have been severed.

It is too early to say how the foot found Wednesday was separated from a body, and Linteau did not address the question of how the fifth foot came to be detached.

"It is certainly a very unusual situation," she said. "We have to explore all avenues and investigate all theories."

Hmmmm. Little bit of hedging on the skeletal separation statements earlier released, which might be compatible with a plane crash. And there were 5 on the plane and six unmatching, at least so far, feet.


Something is going on here.


by pat
images:
* vancouver aerials

Sources:
* BC - Sixth Foot Found
* Some Prank

Canadian Police Still Baffled as More Severed Feet Keep Turning Up

The very creepy story of the feet that keep floating up on the shores of Western Canada continues.

DBKP has reported on this story before.
Canadian Police Baffled: The Case of the Grisly Right Feet

At the time of that DBKP story, only feet had been discovered. DBKP reported on the grisly discovery of the third right foot on British Columbia beaches. The mystery of human feet washing up on Canadian shores has only deepened with the discovery of foot numbers four and five. On May 22 of this year someone's day was ruined by the discovery of the fourth such foot. As reported by C News of Canada:

"The latest head-scratcher that's leaving everyone from police to oceanographers baffled are a series of sneaker-clad right feet that have washed up on shorelines along islands in British Columbia."

There have been four in less than a year. All feet were wearing socks and shoes. Two of them were size 12.

"It's certainly a mystery we intend on solving," Constable Annie Linteau with the RCMP E Division told the media recently. "It's certainly very unusual."

The first in the series was found nearly a year ago on Jedidiah Island. Within days, another right foot was found inside a man's Reebok sneaker on Gabriola Island. The third was found on the east side of Valdez Island in early February.

The origin on any of the remains is still unknown.

Linteau said that there's no evidence the feet were severed or removed from the victims' legs by force.

Actually the fact that the feet were not severed was of little comfort to anyone who followed the story. And we certainly agree with Annie L that it is unusual.

Since the feet were wearing shoes, our guess is that decomposition--and animals--allowed for the skeletal separation. The shoes--no doubt casual walking shoes with aerated soles--floated the feet to near the surface.

But, the comfort of the shoes is of little comfort to us here at DBKP.

You see, we want to know why Canadian beaches seem to be littered with more body parts than a Chicago park or an Iraqi market. No one goes to Chicago or Iraq unless they must. Canada is one of our favorite vacation spots, particularly British Columbia.

So this headline sort of caught my attention:

"5th foot found on B.C.'s south coast"

A human foot was discovered partially submerged in the water near Westham Island in Ladner, B.C., Delta police said Monday.

It's the fifth human foot police have found in the province in less than a year.

"As far as it being linked to other partial remains found, we haven't dismissed that. We're considering all possibilities," Const. Sharlene Brooks told CBC News."

Given the aimless vapidity of the law enforcement spokeswomen, (I'm guessing here the men took a powder and decided that women are better at feet stories when shoe #5 thumped down on the coroner's desk), we are guessing the authorities are clueless.

"Right now we're working very closely with the B.C. coroners' service to identity the person whose remains we have recovered," Brooks said.

Four right feet, each wearing a sock and sneaker, have been discovered in the province since August.

A woman's right foot was found on the uninhabited Kirkland Island in the Fraser River in May, just a few kilometres from Westham Island where Delta police found the fifth foot Monday.

Three other men's right feet washed up in the Gulf Islands between Vancouver and Vancouver Island. In August, feet were discovered on Gabriola and Jedediah islands and, in February, another foot was found on Valdez Island.

B.C.'s chief coroner told CBC News Monday night that investigators have been unable to determine who the four right feet belonged to.

Terry Smith said DNA profiles have been completed on the feet but no matches have been made.

"We'll continue to try and identify known profiles that we can compare them to until we have a match," he said.

So Terry, may we assist you in small way?

First, let us share with you Terry, that if someone was missing a foot and needed you to match it, they would have checked in already.



Secondly, Terry, I think the notoriously incurious Canadian press ( Slogan: All The News That Is Politically Correct And Approved. Seal: Canadian Human Rights Commission) owes a few questions to the readers on what passes for news in Canada.

Like: does the DNA conform to a single racial group, age, sex, ethnic orgin, or other identifying feature?

* Do the times of death match, or are they separated?

* Are the shoe brands similar and where is the factory of their manufacture?

* Are the socks manufactured in the same country and what country was that?

* Do the hair samples contain drug traces?

* What is the scope of the missing persons dragnet?

* Any missing craft in the indicated death period?

You see Terry, these people were likely murdered. And this has gone from the bizarre to the not-so-funny. These feet once had brothers and sisters, parents and spouses.

Pick it up.

by pat
Sources:
* http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/06/16/bc-fifth-foot-found.html
* http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2008/05/26/5669321-cp.html
* Canadian Police Baffled: The Case of the Grisly Right Feet

images:
* grannybuttons
* canada.com