Police carry a foot, found Wednesday, near Campbell River, B.C. in a plastic container.
Posted on 06/19/2008 11:56:08 AM PDT by Renfield
VANCOUVER -- Yet another human foot encased in a running shoe has washed up on B.C.'s south coast, intensifying a macabre mystery that has flummoxed police and forensic investigators.
It's the second foot to turn up this week and the sixth in less than a year.
Wednesday's discovery on Vancouver Island is the most gruesome. The man-sized right foot appeared to have been sawn from its owner's leg.
Unlike the others that have been found, including one discovered Monday near Vancouver, this one was not detached at the ankle joint; there was no evidence of disarticulation.
"It was cut clean, about three or four inches above the ankle bone. It was definitely severed, like it had been sawn off," said Sandra Malone, manager of Thunderbird RV Park and Campground in Campbell River, about 260 kilometres north of Victoria.
Ms. Malone was working what she thought was a routine shift at the RV park on Wednesday morning when a local woman approached her, obviously distraught. "She said she'd been collecting rocks for a craft project when she saw a shoe lying on the beach, just above the high-tide mark," recalled Ms. Malone. "She wasn't sure, but she thought there was a foot inside it."
Ms. Malone followed her down to the beach. The shoe-clad foot was lying in plain view. "I could see two white bones sticking out of a black sneaker. The bones didn't have any flesh on them but they didn't look that old. The shoe was in pretty good condition but there was a lot of seaweed around it," said Ms. Malone.
She said she then ran back to her office and called the RCMP. A pair of officers soon arrived, followed by a team of investigators.
According to Ms. Malone, the officers combed the beach but found nothing else of interest. One Mountie picked up the severed foot and dropped it into a plastic evidence bag.
Ms. Malone and the other woman gave what little information they could to police; they were to be questioned more thoroughly later on Wednesday.
A subsequent RCMP press release stated that the foot "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. A DNA analysis will also be requested."
Five of the six human feet found since last summer are right feet. The one discovered Monday in the Fraser River delta south of Vancouver was a left foot.
Police will not say if the lone left foot matches any of the right feet.
CBC Radio in Vancouver has reported that one foot, discovered in the Fraser delta in late May, came from a woman. But police refuse to either confirm or deny that assertion. Nor will they release information about any potential distinguishing characteristics.
Because the detached feet are encased in synthetic footwear, they can float in water and can remain more or less intact; other human remains have less chance of being washed ashore, although forensic experts say that is not uncommon.
But no one can recall so many detached human feet turning up in one area, in less than a year.
It cannot be said with any certainty where the feet have come from, or to whom they once belonged.
With so little information available, there is speculation. Some believe the detached feet indicate that a serial killer is at work -- jurors who recently convicted Robert "Willie" Pickton of murdering six women at his suburban Vancouver pig farm were told that he had dismembered his female victims. A number of young men who have gone missing from their communities in southern B.C. recently were last seen wearing running shoes.
But others speculate the appearance of six human feet along B.C.'s southern coast can explained by something less nefarious, such as a floatplane crash three years ago. The accident occurred near Quadra Island, not far from Campbell River, and claimed the lives of all four passengers and the pilot.
The victims were all male. Only one body was recovered.
The Coroners Service of British Columbia has investigated a potential link. To date, it has failed to match DNA samples collected from members of the crash victims' families with DNA obtained from some of the mystery feet.
Ms. Malone doesn't wish to offer any theories about the discoveries, including the one made beside her RV park.
"I'm still a bit upset by what I saw," she said Wednesday. "I had heard about the other feet, and thought it was all pretty strange. But this one is a little too close to home."
Police carry a foot, found Wednesday, near Campbell River, B.C. in a plastic container.
The poor sole.
“Based on our findings, we’d say the victim was 6 foot.”
Link to graphic of locations of the feet that have been found:
Methinks a foul plot is afoot!
Foot loose but not fancy free for sure.
I'm sorry, but this is not a laughing matter. What are you, some sort of heel?
“I’m sorry, but this is not a laughing matter. What are you, some sort of heel?”
I know, I put a foot in my mouth. Really started out this thread on the wrong foot.
The police will surely be on their toes, unless they’re a bunch of heels.
Man, when they figure this out, it’s either going to be really funny or really *not* funny.
“Methinks a foul plot is afoot!”
No, a foul foot was afloat.
Owner? How does one “own” a leg!
If one does not keep up the monthly payments, can one lose his leg? When one gets in financial trouble what is the sequence of, losing your leg and your your shirt?
What has surfaced appears to be a case of “six feet under”.
Or unless they have two left feet.
Chart labeled “Six Feet of Mystery”
Even professionals can resist dipping their toes into the puns.
Chart labeled “Six Feet of Mystery”
Even professionals can resist dipping their toes into the puns.
Just be careful. You might get kicked off FR for such comments. Around here you really have to toe the line!
Only if you bought it on an A(djustable)R(ate)M(ortgage).
Solving this case will take some fancy footwork.
“Man, when they figure this out ...”
And they will eventually, but only by putting one foot in front of the other.
“Just be careful. You might get kicked off FR for such comments.”
Nothing new; I was kicked off Lucianne for posting that “Hillary met Huma down at the Y for lunch.”
Weird and creepy!
Something Islamic this way comes... that’s what I’m betting.
Hometown Campbell River, I lived there from 1989 to 2000...
Could be drug related, plenty of drugs on Vancouver Island...
Would not surprise me if it was the drug dealers chopping people up and putting their remains in crab traps as bait.
Across the road from the Campground is the Argonaut wharf and the Tyee spit... spent plenty of summers fishing there.
You don’t hear much about stuff like this, but a lot of bad stuff goes down on the Island and in Vancouver.
We had a drug dealer shot while he and his girlfriend were in their living room back in CR.
Dead hookers out at Wolf Lake shot execution style.
ex RCMP officer shot his wife dead in the apartment complex at the end of my street in CR.
and on and on...
Now, who’s footing the bill of these investigations?
Maybe the feet in tennis shoes are how he selects the victim.
He's also got access to an oceangoing boat to get rid of the rest of the remains.
Next up...3 pairs of odor eaters.
"The game is afoot!"
Six foot wave reported in Vancouver. Surfers disappointed.
Those guys are probably wondering if they should call for an ambulance or a toe-truck.
Not looking forward to when the “owners” start showing up on the beach, if they ever do.
“He’s also got access to an oceangoing boat to get rid of the rest of the remains.”
Or perhaps he was only so hungry . . . .
Thats the sort of chilling detail that would work well in an episode of "CSI British Columbia".
“Because the detached feet are encased in synthetic footwear, they can float in water and can remain more or less intact”
It would also keep them from getting eaten by fishies (at least partially), while clothing would not necessarily do so.
Hardly a walk in the park.
Was it found in 6 feet of water?
Makes sense, but why are they apparently only finding one foot from each victim?
Some people are so not gel'n.
I can't help to laugh at your joke. I should toe the line but your reply was a "SHOE-IN" for least TASTEFUL reply today!
This being a serial murder is a shoe in.
Dangerous undertoe.
“This being a serial murder is a shoe in.”
Yep. If the shoe fits. . .
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