Washed Up Severed Feet a Mystery for Canadian, U.S. Authorities
Eight severed feet have washed ashore in two years.
Oct. 29, 2009— -- Somewhere in the Pacific Northwest there are several bodies missing their feet.
Yet another sneaker-clad foot has washed ashore in British Columbia -- the eighth foot in two years, stumping authorities in both Canada and the United States.
Seven of the feet, including the most recent foot, have been found in the waters of British Columbia. The other foot found off the coast of Port Angeles, Wash.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Cpl. Annie Linteau told ABCNews.com today that on all of the feet there is "no evidence of being severed or artificially removed."
While Canadian authorities seem to be leaning toward decomposition as the reason the feet were detached from the bodies -- which have never been found -- noted forensic pathologist and Kentucky state medical examiner Dr. Greg Davis said he thinks otherwise.
"I don't think this is an artifact of decomposition," he said. "I have never heard of feet just popping off."
Davis, who has not examined any of the feet but has followed the case with interest, said he has a friend who is an emergency room doctor in Vancouver and said people in the area are "a little more than freaked out."
"To me, it's foul play until proven otherwise," he said. "This is just too strange."
Linteau said they are not ruling anything out, including foul play.
"We can never be 100 percent sure," the officer said. "At this point the're no indication that there's foul play involved."
So far only two pairs of feet have been matched, Linteau said. A size 11 male right foot found on Valdez Island on Feb. 8, 2008 was matched with a left foot found on Westham Island on June 16 of that year.
A size 7 right female foot found May 22, 2008 on Kirland Island was matched with a left foot found Nov. 11, 2008 in Richmond, B.C.
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