British Columbia case gets stranger by the foot

The discovery of a sixth human foot — the second in three days — on the coastline of British Columbia provided more dread Wednesday to the growing mystery of whom the feet belong to — and how many more are out there, waiting to be found.

The latest, a right foot encased in a men's black Adidas running shoe, was found on a spit at Campbell River on the eastern side of Vancouver Island. All six of the feet — five rights and a left — have been found since August.

The latest was discovered in the morning by a Campbell River woman who had been looking for rocks for a crafts project near the Thunderbird RV Park and Campground. The unidentified woman rushed to tell Sandra Malone, owner of the RV park, to call the police.

Malone raced down to look at the latest finding.

"People are all talking about this. You wonder if it's a serial-killer thing or what's going on," said Malone. "They're washing up all over the place."

Malone said she saw a right foot inside a black Adidas running shoe, which was sitting above the high-tide line a few feet from the grass. "The woman who found it thought it was just a shoe until she saw the bones sticking out," said Malone.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Constable Annie Linteau said the latest foot and the shoe have been sent to the B.C. Coroner's Service for analysis by a forensic pathologist, who will attempt to determine the source of the foot and whether it is related to the other feet. A DNA analysis also will be conducted.

Until the forensic analysis is completed, there will be no comment by the police on whether the foot had been severed or belonged to a victim of foul play, added Linteau.

Malone said the leg bone was still attached to the foot bone and there was no remaining muscle. The leg bone was "cut on a straight line" just 3 to 4 inches above the ankle, she added.

"It looked like foul play. That's the first thing that came into my mind."

Campbell River resident Sally Feast immediately thought of the death of her brother and four other men in a plane crash off nearby Quadra Island in 2005.

She raced down to the spit as soon as she heard about the foot, which was found not far from where the plane carrying her brother took off. "It's emotionally draining. It could be his foot. But it's possible it's not. We just want closure."

Feast said every discovery of a human foot must be raising the hopes and fears of relatives and friends of thousands of missing people in B.C. "Just when you think everything is going nice and level, this happens. It's two feet in three days."

Chief coroner Terry Smith has said DNA profiles developed for the first three feet do not match any known missing-person cases. Smith also stressed that there is as yet no evidence the feet are related to each other or belonged to victims of foul play.

All of the feet have been found in the Strait of Georgia, which is sheltered from the Pacific Ocean by Vancouver Island, or nearby in the mouth of the Fraser River.

Professor Kurt Grimm, who teaches earth and ocean science at the University of British Columbia, said it's unlikely the feet are washing in from the Pacific Ocean. Rather, they're probably originating from B.C. waters.

"It's extremely unlikely that they're coming from the outside," he said. Grimm said the six feet, all encased in buoyant sneakers, have come from either the strait or the Fraser River, which empties into the strait.

Curtis Ebbesmeyer, a U.S. authority on ocean currents and drifting objects, said a disarticulated foot could float for up to 1,600 kilometers in a buoyant sneaker.