VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Every day seems to bring a new theory on the mystery of BC’s five severed feet. The search for answers has resulted in a parade of experts on everything from flotsam and ocean currents, to running shoe recognition.
Since 2004, there have been reports of 13 feet washing ashore around the world. There have been five that have been found in the past year in local waters. And the Vancouver Province reports another eight have washed up in California, Ottawa, Spain, New Zealand and Britain. The latest was spotted off Ladner on Monday.
The Province quotes a Vancouver athletic shoe store manager who, looking at a photo, thinks it may have been in a basic Nike runner, but can’t tell if its a men’s or women’s model.
Some of the more interesting thoughts have come from oceanographer Curtis Ebermeyer, quoted in today’s Globe and Mail. Ebermeyer says certain beaches attract certain types of flotsam and the feet washing up in BC may be an example of that. He says the ocean sorts things out to an exquisite degree.
If, for example, a shipping container of shoes is lost in the ocean, he says some beaches collect just left shoes, others collect right shoes.
Still the best hope of solving the mystery is identifying the owners through DNA matches. There are now profiles on three of the five feet, but so far no matches to any missing people.
One person watching closely is Sally Feast. Her brother and four others were killed in a plane crash off Quadra Island in 2005. The bodies were never found.
She tells the Vancouver Sun there have been no answers from the coroner’s service on DNA matches yet.
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Severed foot found in B.C. Waters 