6th foot washes up on beach

2008-06-19 12:07

Vancouver - Another human foot was discovered on Wednesday on a British Columbia shoreline, the second one this week and the sixth within a year in a bizarre mystery that has confounded police.

Like most of the others, it was a right foot encased in a running shoe, said police Sergeant Mike Tresoor. He said a citizen spotted it on a beach and no other remains were found.

The feet all were recovered within a few miles of each other along island shorelines in the Strait of Georgia, which lies to the south and west of the provincial capital of Vancouver.

Authorities say they haven't reached any conclusions about the origin of the feet but are working to determine if there are any links to any other partial remains recovered in the province.

'Very unusual'

RCMP spokesperson Constable Annie Linteau says it could be remains of a missing fishermen, perhaps a body from a plane crash. She would not speculate on the possibility of foul play.

"In the first four cases, we did not find any evidence the feet were severed," she said. "It's too early to say if this foot was severed."

The fifth case is in the hands of the Delta Police Department and not under RCMP jurisdiction.

"It's very unusual," she said. "Too my knowledge, we have not encountered anything like this."

Tresoor said major crime investigators from the Campbell River detachment, along with staff from the coroner's office, went to the scene to investigate.

"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," Tresoor said in a statement.

DNA profiles

Terry Smith, the chief coroner of British Columbia, said this week that DNA profiles from the first three feet have not helped to determine identities because they have not matched any existing samples.

Smith and others have suggested that the feet didn't sink but floated to shore because they were encased in buoyant running shoes.

Curtis Ebbesmeyer, an oceanographer based in Seattle, said when a human body is submerged in the ocean, the main parts like arms, legs, hands, feet and the head are usually what come off the body.

He said his theory is that the feet came along as a result of an accident that might have happened up along the Fraser River, that washed down and spread out along the Straight of Georgia.

- AP