i*****s
发帖数: 15215 | 1 Another mysterious right foot floats ashore in Gulf Islands
Last Updated: Friday, February 15, 2008 | 8:44 AM PT
CBC News
For the third time in six months, a right foot wearing a sneaker has washed
up on the shores of the Gulf Islands, in the Strait of Georgia.
The latest foot was found on the east side of Valdes Island, near Nanaimo.
Last August two other right feet, both male and both wearing size 12
sneakers, washed ashore on nearby Gabriola and Jedediah Islands.
Those cases are still under investigation, and so far no links between the
three discoveries have been established, police said.
The latest appendage has been turned over to the B.C. Coroner's Service, and
the RCMP is reviewing missing-persons files that could shed light on its
discovery.
Two feet found in August
Police have yet to determine whether foul play had anything to do with the
feet.
The discovery of the first two feet last summer prompted speculation that
they might have belonged to men who died in a plane or boating accident.
The first was discovered Aug. 20 on Jedediah Island by a 12-year-old girl
from Washington state, who found a black-and-white Adidas shoe with a sock
and foot still inside.
The second was found six days later on Gabriola Island by a Vancouver couple
who were hiking along the beach when they came upon a Reebok running shoe
with human remains inside.
"We have been informed that it looks like both feet had separated from the
body by natural decomposition, possibly while in the water,'' Cpl. Garry Cox
of Oceanside RCMP on Vancouver Island said in August.
Cox said a cleanly cut foot would have been very suspicious, but natural
decomposition suggests the victims might have drowned. | i*****s
发帖数: 15215 | 2 Fourth right foot washes up near Vancouver, RCMP confirm
Last Updated: Saturday, May 24, 2008 | 11:52 AM PT
CBC News
Another right foot wearing a sock and sneaker was discovered washed ashore
near Vancouver, the RCMP confirmed Friday.
The foot is the fourth right foot wearing a sock and a running shoe to wash
up in the area in less than a year.
The latest foot was discovered on uninhabited Kirkland Island in the Fraser
River on Thursday.
The previous three washed up in the Gulf Islands between Vancouver and
Vancouver Island. In August, two size 12 right feet were discovered on
Gabriola and Jedediah islands, and a third foot was found in February on
Valdes Island.
DNA tests were underway and experts in forensics, major crime and missing
persons were all involved in the investigation, the RCMP said on Friday.
RCMP Cpl. Nycki Basra of Richmond said on Thursday that the case is one of
the strangest she has heard of.
"Well, for us, it's our first time. In my 12 years of service, this is the
first time I've seen it," she said about the most recently found foot.
Police are working to trace where the foot came from, Basra said. It could
be the result of a suicide, an accident, or foul play.
Meanwhile, one man believes the feet may be remains of his two brothers and
two other passengers who were in a plane that crashed in the waters off
Quadra Island three years ago.
The bodies of the four men were never recovered, and Kevin Decock has been
looking for the remains of his brothers since the crash in 2005.
Decock said he may have stirred up the ocean floor during a search last
summer.
"I was out on the water conducting some surveys trying to bring up the
engine from the plane crash, and I was dragging a hook. And two weeks after
that the first foot showed up," Decock said.
His father provided authorities with a DNA sample two months ago, but Terry
Smith, B.C.'s chief coroner, would only say that a full DNA profile exists
for the first three of the four feet found, and officials have been unable
to match the feet to any missing persons.
Smith cautioned against jumping to any conclusions, including that there
might be foul play involved.
"This may very well be nothing more than the results of natural process of
decomposition in water and the combined affects of predation by aquatic
scavengers," Smith said.
It appears the first three feet were not severed, Smith said, but separated
from the body through decomposition. | i*****s
发帖数: 15215 | 3 Mysterious feet may be linked to single accident: B.C. forensic expert
Last Updated: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 | 7:59 PM PT
CBC News
A forensic expert at Simon Fraser University said it's unlikely that five
feet, which have washed up on B.C.'s south coast in the past year, belonged
to people who each died in separate incidents.
"It's strange that we had a glut of a whole bunch at once," said Gail
Anderson, who studies the decomposition of human bodies.
"Maybe if a boat or a plane has gone down, something's disturbed it, a
current or another boat hitting it or a dredger moved it so that the body
parts are coming free and are being washed ashore."
The latest — a left foot — was found Monday, partially submerged in the
water near Westham Island in Ladner. Delta police haven't said whether it
belonged to a man or a woman.
A woman's right foot was found in May on the uninhabited Kirkland Island in
the Fraser River — only a few kilometres away from the site of the latest
gruesome discovery.
Before that, three other right feet — all from men — had been found. In
August 2007, two were discovered on Gabriola and Jedediah islands and, in
February 2008, another foot was found on Valdes Island.
All five feet were in socks and shoes.
Feet encased in a shoe can last for a long time in the ocean and tides may
have carried them long distances, perhaps even from another country,
Anderson explained.
"The oceans are all connected. It could be from miles away or a big boat
that was en route somewhere."
Looking for clues
Const. Annie Linteau said RCMP investigators are looking for clues, but it's
difficult to move the investigation forward until the remains are
identified.
"We are reviewing all cases where boaters have gone missing or possible
people that have jumped off bridges or people who may have gone missing in
general," said Linteau.
Even though DNA profiles have been developed from three of the five feet, no
matches have been found.
"It stretches one's imagination … I can tell you I've never run across
something like this," B.C. Chief Coroner Terry Smith said. | i*****s
发帖数: 15215 | 4 Linking severed feet to missing persons a challenge, experts say
Last Updated: Thursday, June 19, 2008 | 6:32 PM ET
by Paul Jay CBC News
The disturbing discovery on Monday June 16 of the remains of a left foot in
a running shoe in the water near Westham Island in Ladner, B.C., may not
seem like much to go on for forensic investigators.
But the remains, one of five feet discovered in the last year and a half in
the same region, could potentially contain deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), bone
minerals and trace evidence, forensic experts say, while the shoe itself
might provide some history on the time and place when a person may have gone
missing.
The difficulty, they say, is in turning such evidence into something that
can identify an individual and help families looking for information on
missing persons.
The problem was exacerbated by the news that a sixth shoe, found near
Campbell River, contained a skeletonized animal paw packed with dry seaweed
in what the B.C. Coroners Service called "a reprehensible hoax."
The discovery of the hoax highlights the first investigative tool at the
disposal of the coroners service: a simple examination of the shoe and bones
it contains.
Pathologists and anthropologists can better estimate everything from the
height of the person to their age based on that study, B.C. chief coroner
Terry Smith said.
But to glean more information, DNA evidence is often required.
The process of raising DNA profiles based on the remains can be a
painstaking process, Smith told CBC News, but that's only the beginning of
the work.
"The [DNA] profile itself really is nothing more than something which looks
like a barcode, and it really means nothing until you have something to
compare it to," he said.
"If we know that a given profile belongs to a particular person, then
comparing the profile we raised from the found remains then allows us to
make a definite match."
Finding that match isn't as easy, he said, because of the vast numbers of
missing persons, not all of whom have DNA samples available for comparison.
Dean Hildebrand, head of the forensics program at the British Columbia
Institute of Technology, said the process of extracting DNA from a sample
such as a human bone can take as little time as a week or two.
The process involves cleaning the sample to eliminate potential contaminants
and then isolating a few cells to look for relatively clean DNA strands.
These strands are then replicated in a laboratory to create larger samples
to work from, so that even a DNA sample that has degraded over time can be
turned into something usable for study, he said.
That replication process is particularly important given that the remains in
these cases have been found near water, because moisture is — along with
temperature — an important cause of genetic degradation.
Exposure to water
Exposure to water is also likely why the feet broke away from the rest of
the body, said Lynne Bell, a forensics professor at Simon Fraser University.
Had these feet not been in shoes, the bones of the foot would likely have
broken away from the rest of the body in the water, said Bell, who is not
involved in the investigation. Human remains recovered in forests can also
have a similar separation of shoe-clad foot from the rest of the body,
although that process would take much longer, she said.
That the shoes were running shoes also meant they would float, she said,
allowing them to travel downstream while the rest of the remains sank.
Bell said DNA is the best source of evidence for investigators attempting to
link the remains to a person, because it can positively identify a single
individual. However, there are other methods for getting more general
information about a person, she said.
The shoes could be a source of potential information, she said, starting
with the most basic information — the size and the brand of the footwear.
While both could provide a potential match with an individual, the brand, if
new enough, could help investigators figure out when the person might have
gone missing.
More advanced study, such as examining to see whether pollen from trees and
other plants has hitched a ride on the footwear, might provide information
on a particular geographical region, she said.
Oxygen isotopes offer clues
Similarly, studying the minerals in the bone itself could provide a
geographical marker of where a person might have lived, Bell said. She said
the study of oxygen isotopes found in the bone could place a person at a
certain latitude, as the oxygen value of drinking water changes depending on
the location's distance from the equator.
"That would help narrow a missing person search, but it won't give you an
address," she said.
As investigators work on the case, online comment boards have offered
possible explanations on how the discovered remains may be linked.
Bell said investigators will likely call on water current experts to see
whether the locations of the discoveries are linked, but she said she
suspects the unusual appearance of five different feet in the same region
over a short span of time makes it "highly plausible" they are.
"It could either be a known incident, such as a plane or boat crash, or it
could be something we don't know about, such as a criminal incident," she
said.
Bell said she feels confident investigators will eventually be able to solve
the mystery, linking the remains with each other, but she said the greater
challenge remains identifying whom the feet belong to.
"It's incredibly challenging from the forensic point of view, because even
if we find the DNA, we don't know who these people are and why their remains
are being recovered from the water," she said. | i*****s
发帖数: 15215 | 5 2 of 5 feet found on B.C. coast belong to same man: RCMP
Police release detailed descriptions of shoes
Last Updated: Thursday, July 10, 2008 | 5:39 PM PT
CBC News
DNA tests on the five feet found on shorelines of B.C.'s south coast
confirmed two were from the same person, but there were no signs any were
severed from bodies by tools or trauma, the RCMP said Thursday.
All the feet, discovered in the past year, were encased in athletic shoes,
the specifics of which were released by the RCMP in Vancouver on Thursday.
The two feet that were from the same person were found on Valdes and Westham
islands in February and June. They were in men's size 11 Nike shoes,
manufactured in 2003 and sold across North America.
"The B.C. Coroners Service has confirmed the remains of a right foot found
on Feb. 2, 2008, on Valdes Island, and the remains of a left foot found June
16, on Westham Island, are from the same male," said Jeff Dolan, coroners
service executive director for regional operations.
The man has not been identified, nor have any of the other remains.
The coroners service said the right foot found on Kirkland Island in May
2008 is from a female.
There's no evidence the five feet became separated by anything other than
decomposition, the RCMP said.
"We want to make it clear: there is no evidence that these feet had been
severed. There were no tool markings and no visible sign of trauma," Const.
Annie Linteau said Thursday.
"It appears that these feet have naturally disarticulated from the bodies
through natural process."
Police released pictures of the runners the feet were found in, hoping that
someone might recognize them as the type worn by a missing loved one.
The RCMP have solicited expertise from a forensic anthropologist, a forensic
pathologist, oceanographers and a forensic entomologist to help their
investigation.
RCMP are now attempting to match the feet with missing persons files using
DNA. They have eliminated 130 of 243 possible male matches so far, Linteau
said.
Details of feet listed
DNA testing on the feet cannot determine race or age, police said.
Studies of local currents indicate the feet likely came from the southern
portion of the Strait of Georgia, which separates the Lower Mainland from
Vancouver Island.
RCMP said they have not yet ruled out the theory that the feet might have
come from people on a plane that crashed in the Strait of Georgia near
Quadra Island three years ago.
RCMP released the following details about the shoes and feet:
The first foot was located on Aug. 20, 2007, on Jedediah Island. The shoe
is a Campus brand running shoe, primarily white with blue mesh, and is
believed to be a size 12. It was produced in 2003 and distributed primarily
in India.
The second foot was located Aug. 26, 2007, on Gabriola Island in a men's
white Reebok running shoe, size 12. It was produced in 2004 and distributed
globally, but mostly in North America. It was first available on March 1,
2004, and is no longer sold.
The third foot was located on Feb. 8, 2008, on Valdes Island. It was inside
a men's blue and white Nike running shoe, size 11. It was produced in 2003
and sold in Canada and the United States from Feb. 1 to June 30, 2003.
The fourth foot was located on May 22, 2008, on Kirkland Island. It is a
woman's blue and white New Balance running shoe, size 7. It was produced in
June 1999 and distributed through major retail stores.
The fifth foot was located on Westham Island on June 16, 2008, and matches
the third foot and shoe. | i*****s
发帖数: 15215 | 6 Possible severed foot found on Washington coast
Last Updated: Monday, August 4, 2008 | 10:33 AM ET
CBC News
What appears to be another sneaker-clad human foot has washed ashore in
waters near British Columbia, this time in Washington state, U.S. newspapers
report.
State authorities say they are in contact with the RCMP to see whether there
might be a connection with five feet found in shoes on British Columbia
beaches in the past year.
Clallam County Undersheriff Ron Peregrin said the shoe, found Friday on a
beach about 50 kilometres west of Port Angeles on the Strait of Juan de Fuca
, is similar to three of those found in Canada: The remains appear to be
from a human right foot and were inside a man's low-cut athletic shoe,
possibly used for hiking.
"But this is a considerable distance to where the others were found in
Canadian waters," he told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "And one that was
found was a hoax, so we want to be certain."
Five athletic shoes containing human feet have been found along the Strait
of Georgia between Vancouver Island and the British Columbia mainland since
August 2007. The Strait of Juan de Fuca separates Vancouver Island and
Washington's Olympic Peninsula.
The RCMP announced last month that none of the feet had been forcibly
severed. Police discovered that two of the feet belonged to the same man,
and determined a sixth shoe found in June in B.C. was a hoax: an animal paw
that had been shoved inside an athletic shoe.
Uncertain if foot is animal or human
Det.-Sgt. Lyman Moores told the Seattle Times the shoe probably belonged to
a man, but he couldn't identify the brand or size.
"What it was is … a sock inside the shoe that appeared to contain
decomposed flesh," he said. "We don't know at this point whether that's
animal, whether it's human, or what it is."
Tests should determine by the end of the week whether bones and flesh in
this shoe are human, Moores told the Times.
Results of a DNA profile will take six to eight weeks, Peregrin told the
Post-Intelligencer.
Authorities said a woman walking along Jim Creek found the foot Friday and
reported it to the Clallam County Sheriff's Office early Saturday.
"She could see sand in the shoe and when she removed the sock, she could
tell there were bones and probably decomposing flesh," Peregrin said of the
woman, who found the shoe in seaweed near milepost 34 on state Route 112.
Clallam County Sheriff's deputies began working with the RCMP on Saturday.
Local authorities were hesitant to speculate on whether there is a link
between the cases.
"But those similarities you can't ignore," Peregrin said. "We want to make
sure our investigation is co-ordinated." | i*****s
发帖数: 15215 | 7 Police pursue theories over severed feet
June 18, 2008
Investigators are pursuing a variety of theories in their quest to unravel
the mystery of six human feet that have washed up on the shores of British
Columbia in the last 11 months.
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."
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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."
The coroner's office plans to examine DNA from the foot found Wednesday to
try to identify the person to whom it belonged, she said. The authorities
also are combing through missing persons reports and trying to determine
when and where the shoe was manufactured and sold.
The sixth foot was found by a woman walking on the beach, said Sgt. Mike
Tresoor of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the town of Campbell River
on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
"A local citizen walking on a beach in Tyee Spit located what appears to be
human remains of a right foot in an approximate size 10 black Adidas running
shoe," police said in a written statement.
The foot will be examined by a forensic pathologist, and DNA testing will be
requested, said the statement posted on the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Web site.
Sandra Malone, manager of the Thunderbird RV Park and Campground on the spit
, said a woman came in about 10:30 a.m. and asked her to call police, saying
she had found the shoe with the foot inside it.
While waiting for police, Malone said, she walked to the beach with the
woman and saw it for herself.
"You could see the foot that's inside the running shoe," she said. "The leg
bones were coming out of the running shoe about 3 to 4 inches. There were no
tissues or anything attached."
She said seaweed was wrapped around the top of the running shoe, making it
hard to tell whether any tissue was inside the shoe. "I got close enough,"
she said.
But she said the foot appeared to have been deliberately severed, as the
bones "had been cut clean across."
The foot was the sixth discovered on shorelines in the area since August,
according to local police and media reports. Another foot -- a left foot
still in a shoe -- was found Monday on the shore of Westham Island, south of
Vancouver. Police said it was taken to a coroner for DNA testing.
"Our first step is to establish identity," said Constable Sharlene Brooks of
the Delta Police Department in British Columbia. "It is a little mysterious
, but we don't know if it is linked to others."
The Vancouver Sun newspaper said the first four feet found in the area were
all right feet, making the foot found Monday the only left foot.
Although the gruesome finds have drawn international attention, police said
it may take some time to unravel the mystery.
"We suffer from the 'CSI' effect: People think this can happen very quickly,
" Brooks said. "It could take weeks or months. And even if we get a DNA
sample, we need a sample to match it with."
The mystery has caused a stir and led to many rumors, locals say. One
newspaper has began investigating a rash of young men who have gone missing
in the area.
Some have wondered whether the feet could belong to five men who were in a
plane that crashed three years ago in the waterway where the feet were found.
Some of those men's relatives were at the Campbell River site on Wednesday.
"It's a constant reminder every time, from the time the first foot washed up
," said Kirsten Stevens, whose husband, Dave, died in the crash. Although
her husband's body was located, Stevens said, the other men's relatives
still are awaiting answers. They never recovered their loved ones' remains.
"It reopens the wound every single time," she said.
"If it's not us, it's somebody else's loved one, that they don't know. ...
We'd like to know," said Sally Feast, sister of pilot Arnold Feast. "We'd
like to put something to rest."
Diane Selkirk, a freelance writer who lives near where one foot was found,
said the discoveries have been a hot topic of conversation.
"At first, the talk about it was really humorous, but as more feet turned up
, the talk became sinister," she added. "These are pristine islands, not the
place where you would expect to find a bunch of severed feet." | i*****s
发帖数: 15215 | 8 Foot found in sneaker in Vancouver inlet
CBC News
Posted: Aug 30, 2011 7:16 PM PT
Last Updated: Aug 30, 2011 7:54 PM PT
What appears to be a human foot and a leg bone have been found in a running
shoe floating in a downtown Vancouver waterway, police say.
Shortly before 5 p.m. PT Tuesday, police were notified that the grisly find
had been made in the water next to the Plaza of Nations marina in False
Creek, Const. Jana McGuinness said in a release.
The area was cordoned off and the B.C. Coroner's Service was notified,
McGuinness said.
She said there was no early indication of how the remains came to be there,
and further forensic examination would be required.
The discovery is the 12th finding of purported human remains in a shoe in
waters on the West Coast since August 2007. One of those discoveries proved
to be the product of a hoax.
Some of the remains have been identified through DNA analysis, but the
source of most of them is still not known. | i*****s
发帖数: 15215 | 9 Canada’s Severed-Feet Mystery
Sep 4, 2011 10:00 AM EDT
Since 2007, 11 human feet have washed up on the shore near British Columbia
—and no one knows why. Winston Ross on the spooky case that has authorities
grimacing.
Just before suppertime on Tuesday, someone spotted a human foot, attached to
a leg and encased in a running shoe, bobbing in False Creek, which divides
downtown Vancouver from the rest of the city.
As the creek is made up of the four different waterways that encircle this
British Columbia metropolis, it’s impossible to say for sure where the foot
came from. But what is known, and what’s truly baffling about this
particular appendage, is that it’s the 11th to appear in nearby waters in
the past four years.
Eleven feet, some right and some left, all clad in buoyant running shoes,
all within 125 miles or so of each other.
Is there a serial killer with a foot fetish on the loose? Some crime buffs
would like to think so, and even those who disagree have to admit that the
whole thing sounds like a real-life episode of Dexter. But it turns out that
the best explanation for the floating appendages is more science than
fiction, more droll than juicy.
Since the feet began washing onto shores in British Columbia’s Georgia
Strait in 2007, mystery aficionados have salivated at the chance to solve
the case from their armchairs. But the first of those limbs have since been
identified, say officials who’ve run DNA tests and examined the feet for
signs of foul play. And the results of those cases are in.
“There’s no evidence,” Vancouver City Coroner Stephen Fonseca told The
Daily Beast on Friday, “of mechanical disarticulation.”
In other words, the feet came apart from their owners naturally. They weren
’t hacked off or sawed off or chewed off or yanked off. They just drifted
away from their bodies, as decomposing limbs are wont to do.
That alone, of course, doesn’t mean the feet weren’t murdered. But
Canadian detectives have also spent a good deal of time investigating the
backgrounds of the limbs’ owners in recent years, perhaps due to mounting
media-driven pressure to solve the mystery of the missing feet.
“Even a bad episode of The Sopranos will cough up a couple other body parts
than feet,” said forensics consultant and former Toronto Police detective
Mark Mendelson. “There are so many coincidences taking place, I don’t
think you can write it off. Everybody who jumps off a bridge is wearing
runners? It’s bizarre. The common denominators are such that you’ve got to
wonder. Until you can show me something pathologically concrete that this
is a natural separation of that foot from a body, then I’m saying you’ve
got to think dirty.”
The results can only have been a disappointment to conspiracy theorists (not
to suggest that Mendelson is one of them). For one, the only feet that have
been linked to one another actually belonged to the same person: a right
and a left. The rest have all been ruled, if you will, disconnected.
One foot that washed up on the banks of the Fraser River in 2007 belonged to
a 28-year-old man from Surrey, B.C., police learned after releasing a
photograph to the media. (The family recognized the shoe and DNA confirmed
the man’s ID.)
While a foot isn’t nearly enough of a body on which to perform a real
autopsy and determine a cause of death, investigators did learn that this
particular man had a history of mental illness, and that he was “distraught
” before disappearing from his home in Surrey on April 5, 2007.
“It is suspected that Mr. (redacted) entered the Fraser River in Delta, B.C
., and soon after unconsciousness or death, his body sank,” wrote Karen
Collins, coroner of the province of British Columbia, in a report obtained
by The Daily Beast. “There was no evidence of foul play.”
Another completed investigation linked a missing foot via DNA evidence to a
23-year-old man from White Rock, B.C. He suffered from schizophrenia but
didn’t like the effect his medication had on him and wasn’t taking it,
which led to “a breakdown” in January 2008, according to Coroner Fonseca’
s report. Days before he disappeared, he went to see a psychiatrist at the
urging of his father, and the shrink injected the man with an anti-psychotic.
It didn’t take. He was last seen in his car beneath a bridge over the
Fraser River, the same river where his body turned up.
Of four feet that have been identified so far, none are thought to have
involved any sort of foul play, Fonseca said. “There’s certainly nothing
to indicate that they died at the hands of another.”
The more likely scenario, says Gail Anderson, a criminologist at British
Columbia’s Simon Fraser University, is suicide. Vancouver is a city of many
bridges, and jumping from them remains a popular way for people to take
their own lives. Investigations into the backgrounds of the owners of the
feet so far identified all point in that direction, even if there’s no
definitive proof of persons hurling themselves into the water.
“All the ones who’ve been identified so far, there’s no mystery. These
people were very depressed, unhappy about life, and were last seen heading
toward the water,” Anderson said. “People jump off bridges. They
deliberately wish to disappear.”
Much of a letdown as that may be to certain bloggers and If it bleeds, it
leads” journos, it’s what makes the most sense, says Anderson—weird as it
is to imagine so many feet bobbing to the surface in this one relatively
small part of the world.
But why feet? Why not hands and heads and torsos? Because unlike other parts
of the body, feet are often ensconced in buoyant, mummifying tennis shoes,
says Richard Thompson, a physical oceanographer with the federal Institute
of Ocean Sciences on Vancouver Island. While other appendages might separate
, sink, and decompose, the shoes preserve all those tiny bones that would
otherwise break down in the salt water, and the air-filled or rubberized
soles at the bottom of those shoes would cause them to float to the surface.
Why so many in the same place? That’s a trickier question, and it’s a big
part of the reason high-profile crime experts from all over the world have
weighed in to suggest something’s rotten in Canada.
“Why is this happening now, in Vancouver, when it wasn’t happening before?
” asked criminologist Kim Rossmo of Texas State Univeristy, who specializes
in geographic profiling. “Any one given foot may have one or more
different meanings or theories, but when you see an overall pattern like
this, it certainly is highly suspicious.”
But there’s a reasonable explanation for that too, Thompson says. Ocean
currents in this part of the world have a way of channeling items such as
floating feet into the same general area, by design.
“There’s a lot of recirculation in the region; we’re working here with a
semi-enclosed basin. Fraser River, False Creek, Burrard Inlet—all those
regions around there are somewhat semi-enclosed. The tidal currents and the
winds can keep things that are floating recirculating in the system. They
don’t necessarily get rapidly flushed out... False Creek is really a
backwater.”
Another possible explanation for so many feet discovered in the same place
is the Vicious Cycle theory. Each time a new one gets discovered, that fuels
more media attention, getting the general public that much more riled up
and vigiliant about missing feet, thereby turning what otherwise might be
placid walks on the beach into scavenger hunts. Time was, you saw a shoe
floating in the surf, you wouldn’t give it a second glance. But now that
British Columbia has become famous for floating feet, people are too curious
not to check it out.
“People will wade out to go look at a shoe,” Fonseca said.
So, with apologies to the modern-day Sherlock Holmes of the world, there’s
apparently no mystery to be solved in Vancouver, at least not one that’s
derived from all the newfound feet.
“It is creepy. I guess that’s the fascination,” Thompson said. He’s just
not a conspiracy theorist, though, offering up as proof: “I believe the
Americans landed on the moon.”
But there is one juicy morsel in the latest discovery, food for thought for
those with an Agatha Christie complex. The foot found on False Creek was
near a part of Vancouver known as Leg in Boot Square. That’s because in the
1800s, someone found a boot with a leg in it that had washed up on the
shore of the creek.
“Police nailed it to the door of the station,” Rossmo said, “with a sign
that said, ‘If anyone recognizes this, come talk to us.’”
If those two feet were somehow connected, police would have a real mystery
on their hands.
Like The Daily Beast on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for updates all
day long.
Winston Ross is a reporter for The Register-Guard in Eugene, Ore., and a
regular contributor to The Daily Beast. He blogs irregularly at winstonross.
wordpress.com.
For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at e*******[email protected]. | i*****s
发帖数: 15215 | 10 Another foot found in Canadian waters
September 01, 2011|By the CNN Wire Staff
Authorities have found what appears to be a severed human foot this week,
the 11th found in waterways in British Columbia in the past four years.
The discovery of another foot, this one still stuck in a running shoe, adds
to the mystery that has confounded Canadians for years.
A boy found the foot and leg bone Tuesday near a marina in an inlet called
False Creek, Vancouver Police said.
Foul play is not suspected, authorities told Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
Authorities believe that because the remains did not have any evidence of
trauma, the CBC reported.
The British Columbia Coroners Service has in the past said it was conducting
DNA profile tests to determine the identities of the remains.
Some of the feet have been identified through DNA, but the reason they turn
up where they do is still unknown in most cases, the CBC said. | | | i*****s
发帖数: 15215 | 11 DNA links two severed feet to missing Surrey man
Published On Tue May 24 2011
Forensic science has revealed the mystery behind the bizarre case of severed
feet found off B.C.’s coastline, or at least more than half of them.
Since 2007, seven detached feet, mainly found in sneakers, have shown up on
B.C.’s coastlines. Three more have washed ashore in Washington State, just
south of the border.
On Tuesday, the B.C. Coroner’s Service announced they’ve linked two of
those seven detached feet to one man.
Coroner Stephen Fonseca said DNA analysis shows the two feet — found in
separate locales five months apart — belonged to a 21-year-old man from
Surrey. He was reported missing in January 2004.
The first was found Feb. 8, 2008, on Valdez Island. On June 16 that year, a
second size 11 Nike running shoe was found on Westham Island. Both islands
are between Vancouver Island and the mainland.
Fonseca said the missing man’s family has been notified.
The coroner’s service has been collecting DNA from family members of
reported missing persons to try to identify the severed feet found in the
running shoes.
The mysterious appearances of feet had led to speculation that a serial
killer was at large, that the remains were part of a human trafficking ring
from Asia, or that remnants of bodies were washing up from the 2004 tsunami.
Those theories were debunked after oceanographers concluded the bodies
originated somewhere along the West Coast and forensic investigators found
the remains had separated naturally.
Fonseca said an autopsy performed on the remains found in the two size-11
Nike shoes that belonged to the missing man indicate the feet had not been
mechanically removed. Instead, they separated through natural processes that
occur in a marine environment.
“Foul play has been ruled out,” Fonseca said.
With the new findings, the coroner has now positively identified four of the
feet as belonging to three individuals. The identity of the remaining three
, which belong to one male and one female, remains unknown.
Fonseca said there is no evidence of foul play with any of the severed feet. | i*****s
发帖数: 15215 | | i*****s
发帖数: 15215 | 13 Newest found foot. From less than two months ago.
Foot in hiking boot washes up in Port Moody
CBC News
Posted: Nov 8, 2011 10:55 AM PT
The BC Coroners Service is investigating a foot encased in a hiking boot
that washed up on the shore of Sasamat Lake in Port Moody, B.C.
Sasamat Lake, B.C.
Officials said that on Friday a youth attending a camp at the Sasamat
Outdoor Centre spotted the boot, which was floating in a few metres of water
off the northwest shore.
When the boot washed up Saturday morning and a sock and bones were found
inside, authorities were called in. An autopsy held Monday confirmed the
remains are human.
The coroners service said the autopsy did not show any tool marks or
impressions on the bones to indicate the foot had been mechanically
separated from the body.
The hiking boot is a black Cougar-brand men's size 12 with a blue interior
felt lining. The metal eyelets are significantly rusted, which suggests that
it could have been in the water for some time.
Although it is the ninth foot to wash up in southwestern B.C. in the past
four years, the coroners service said there are "some significant
differences between this and the other eight cases."
For one, this is the first foot to be found in fresh water, not saltwater.
It is also the first to be found in a hiking boot rather than a running shoe.
All nine feet appear to have detached naturally, as a result of having spent
a period of time in the water, officials said.
Six of the eight feet previously found have been identified.
The coroners service said it is working with several agencies and will use
DNA testing to try to determine the identity of the person whose foot was
recovered on the weekend. | i*****s
发帖数: 15215 | 14 Science of Forensics: Mystery of the Floating Feet
Wednesday July 6 at 10 pm ET/PT on CBC News Network
It's like a real life episode of "Crime Scene Investigation". In Canada, on
May 22nd 2008, something unexpected was found washed ashore on an island off
British Columbia - one right foot. The severed foot was still in its
running shoe. This was the fourth severed foot to wash up on these shores in
two months. Where did these floating feet come from and whom did they
belong to?
Police and the coroner's office were initially unable to link the feet to
missing persons, but speculation about who they belonged to ranged from
victims of boating accidents to un-recovered bodies from a plane crash. And,
the more grizzly theories: victims of a serial killer or criminal gangs.
Among the clues they had to go on: four of the feet were right feet. The
fourth foot was the only one belonging to a woman. DNA evidence revealed
that two of the feet belonged to the same man. Police said there was no
evidence to suggest the feet were intentionally severed, but that didn't
rule out foul play.
Investigators turned to forensic experts like Dr. Gail Anderson. She is
pioneering a new technology called VENUS that monitors decay under the sea.
Using two unsolved cases, Science of Forensics: The Mystery of the Floating
Feet goes deep into the science and human ingenuity behind forensic
investigation. One case of a mysterious body found in a field leads us
through the specialized world of forensic anthropology. Here insects, paint
chips, ballistics and DNA bring together the pieces of the puzzle needed to
solve the mystery.
The ocean is the newest frontier of forensic anthropology. As more severed
feet wash up on the coast, scientists push on for answers. Dr. Anderson has
been using VENUS to observe a corpse of a pig at the bottom of the wharf,
while oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer helps to solve the mystery by
following the patterns of sneakers released into ocean currents.
Science of Forensics: Mystery of the Floating Feet tells the stories of
mysterious deaths and reveals the "CSI" science behind how each case was
solved. | i*****s
发帖数: 15215 | 15 Help to Solve the Pacific Northwest's Floating Feet Case
On Tuesday another foot washed ashore in the Pacific Northwest. The
discovery marks the eleventh found on the BC coast since 2007. Three others
came ashore in nearby Washington state. The first foot, discovered in August
2007 on Jedediah Island, BC, was associated with a deceased man whose name
police withheld at the request of his family. A man’s right foot found on
Gabriola Island in August 2007 remains unidentified. Two feet found on
Valdez and Westham islands in July 2008 belonged to the same man. And two
female feet found in Richmond, B.C., in December 2008 belonged to the same
woman. In October 2009, a right foot was discovered on a beach in Richmond.
All of the feet discovered so far have been in running shoes.
Stephen Fonseca of the British Columbia Coroners Service told an ABC
reporter that so far none of the cases is deemed suspicious, stating human
remains can come apart naturally in water. He also says the feet could have
come from people who have met their ends jumping over one of the many
waterway bridges in the area. According to his logic running shoes of today
are more buoyant and it’s a very rational explanation that when the feet do
disarticulate, through marine scavenging and decomposition, the shoe will
bring the foot back up to the surface and it will float there until it
reaches shoreline.
We won’t disagree with the coroner on shoe buoyancy and body decomposition,
but it does seem a suspicious that eleven feet have washed ashore in the
same area in such a short amount of time. Others posting at the Scuttlefish
blog agree and have dreamed up some pretty interesting theories. If anyone
can identify the victim or assist the investigation, give the Washington
State Police or BC authorities a call. | i*****s
发帖数: 15215 | 16 Search in a ‘floating feet’ case leads to troubled young man from Surrey,
B.C.
Tristin Hopper Sep 2, 2011 – 7:00 AM ET | Last Updated: Sep 2, 2011 10:33
AM ET
As Talib rounds a corner on Surrey, B.C.’s Annacis Highway, his destination
comes into view on the edge of the horizon. Although they stretch up to 150
metres from the Fraser River, from this distance the two towers of the Alex
Fraser Bridge look like nothing more than tuning forks.
When Talib (not his real name) left his parents’ suburban Surrey home at 5
that New Year’s Day morning in 2004, he told them he was going to the local
Sikh temple. Dressed in a blue tracksuit and a pair of Nikes, the 21-year-
old also wears the marks of his religion: a turban on his head, a bangle on
his wrist and a kirpan.
Driving up the bridge’s ramp, he brings his car to a stop on the roadway
between the two large towers. After clicking on the hazard lights, Talib
steps out of the car, locks the doors and walks to the bridge railing. It is
not known whether he hesitates before jumping.
On Tuesday of this week, Vancouverites awoke to news of an event that is
starting to become eerily commonplace: a disembodied foot discovered bobbing
in the waters of the Pacific Northwest.
Since the summer of 2007, 11 feet have washed up on the shores of southern
British Columbia and northern Washington state. A newly formed branch of the
coroner’s service has struggled to find where the mysterious feet are
coming from.
After years of employing some of the world’s most advanced forensic
techniques, one of the unit’s searches would lead right back here: a
troubled young man from Surrey standing on a freezing bridge deck.
Roughly every 65 minutes, a sudden or unexpected death is reported to the B.
C. coroner. Most are identified quickly by a family member or by an ID card.
Every few thousand deaths, however, a body emerges that seems to defy all
attempts at identification: waterlogged floating corpses; a piece of cranium
that lay undiscovered in a forest glade for decades. Those are the bodies
that come to Stephen Fonseca. “We don’t have the luxury of looking at
blond hair, blue eyes, scars, marks or tattoos in many of our cases,” said
Mr. Fonseca, manager of identification for the coroner’s office. “We’re
dealing with an arm bone or a pair of legs.”
The first foot was found on Aug. 20, 2007 by a 12-year-old girl walking
along a tiny island off Vancouver Island. A week later, another right foot
showed up a couple hundred kilometres north, on Quadra Island. “Finding one
foot is like a million to one odds, but to find two is crazy,” a local
RCMP spokesman said.
Rumours circulated that a morgue employee was stealing feet as a practical
joke or that drug gangs were removing the feet of their enemies.
But this was not foul play. All bodies begin to disarticulate if left
underwater long enough. Normally, a disarticulated body would be left to
crumble into dust on the seafloor. The difference with the Salish Sea feet
is that they were encased in buoyant running shoes. As the ankles of
underwater bodies wore away, their decomposing feet bobbed to the surface.
Officials at the B.C. coroner’s service were increasingly baffled about how
to identify the feet. Dental records, tattoos, fingerprints: none of the
usual tricks work with disembodied feet. Using DNA sampling, Mr. Fonseca’s
staff could pinpoint the sex. By spending hours on the phone with Nike and
New Balance they could track down the production date of the shoes (Talib’s
shoes were made after 2000).
Coastal currents could be charted to figure out where the feet might have
drifted from, but nothing could be known for sure. Within a few months of
Talib’s feet turning up, all Mr. Fonseca’s staff knew was that they both
belonged to a male of unknown age whose body had entered the Salish Sea
sometime after 2000.
From bridge deck to water surface, Talib’s fall takes three seconds.
Striking the icy water at more than 117 kilometres an hour, he might as well
be hitting concrete.
Within minutes, Surrey Search and Rescue are cruising the river. Surrey RCMP
Constable Ryan Roth issues a missing person’s alert. Whatever sightings
are called in, Const. Roth does not expect them to be good: “Everything
from day one suggested it was a suicide.”
For at least four years, his body lay undetected beneath 15 metres of water.
After detaching, his left foot rounds a couple of bends in the river and
washes onto Westham Island, a farming community just south of Richmond. His
right, meanwhile, moves nearly 100 kilometres. In February 2008, Talib’s
right foot is discovered by forestry workers on remote Valdes Island. Four
months later, a couple on a walk spot his left foot.
The investigation into each new foot usually begins in an examination room
at Vancouver General Hospital, where the resident forensic pathologist
examines the skeletonized foot for signs of disease, previous fractures, or
tattoos — any subtle clue that can possibly connect it to its long-dead
owner. The feet are then tagged and sent to the cold storage lockers.
When Mr. Fonseca founded the identification unit in 2006, he faced a
daunting catalogue of unidentified remains stretching back to the 1950s. He
immediately set about computerizing the archaic system.
The result is the Geographic Imaging System, a massive, searchable 3D map of
the province. Each human remain turned up in B.C. is represented as a dot
on a screen. Click on a dot, and a window pops up with details of the
discovered remains. Zoom out, and the whole of British Columbia is cloaked
in more than 200 coloured dots, a province’s worth of unknown bones, body
parts and corpses.
In September 2010, Constable Ryan Roth learned of a possible link between
the “floating feet” and people who committed suicide by jumping off Fraser
River bridges. He thought of the troubled young Sikh he first heard about
in the winter of 2004. He called the RCMP Serious Crimes Unit, which quickly
passed him on to Mr. Fonseca.
The query made Mr. Fonseca sit up. Talib’s feet had already been
unsuccessfully compared against hundreds of names — but this name was
different. Talib had died in the water. He had been dead for six years —
about as long as the feet had been decaying. And, he was wearing a pair of
size 11 Nikes.
Years before, Talib’s family had provided blood samples on the chance of a
DNA match. Const. Roth requisitioned the samples out of storage and
forwarded them to Mr. Fonseca.
In an instant, seven years of unknowing immediately come to an end for Talib
’s family, and Mr. Fonseca’s small, unsung branch of the coroner’s
service gets to celebrate a rare victory.
Talib’s feet were the third and fourth floating feet to be identified. The
Jebediah Island foot — the first to be found — was determined to belong to
a “depressed” man from the Lower Mainland. A right foot discovered in
late 2009 outside Richmond was that of a Vancouver man who was reported
missing in 2008.
Talib’s family refused any media attention regarding their son’s discovery
. In May, they received a piece of him to bury. What they may never know is
why he jumped.
National Post
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