General Chat

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I had a thread about this ongoing mystery but it has vanished into the great GR unknown:) I didn't remove the thread so I'm assuming GR did.
This is the latest, with yet another foot found today.



RICHMOND, B.C. — A couple walking their dogs along the banks of British Columbia's Fraser River made what appears to be the latest in a series of gruesome discoveries of a running shoe with a severed foot inside.

It's the seventh such find inside a shoe along the West Coast from Georgia Strait to the northwestern tip of Washington State since August 2007.

RCMP Const. Annie Linteau confirmed Wednesday that remains were inside a left-foot New Balance runner spotted the previous day, but said it would be some time before the B.C. Coroner's office could confirm if the remains are human.

Ken Johnson and his wife spotted the shoe while walking their dogs Tuesday along the Fraser River in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond.

"I flipped it over and it looked suspicious to me, in terms of it seemed to have a sock and New Balance sort of stuck in our head," he said, recalling previous stories about feet found in running shoes on the B.C. shoreline.

"My first reaction was this was a small size, maybe a woman's shoe," said Johnston, who fished the runner out of the river.

"It's kind of blurry now, but my first reaction, my gut reaction, was it looks like a woman's shoe, a left shoe."

One right New Balance runner - the only one belonging to a woman - has been found since the first foot was located on Jedidiah Island in Georgia Strait on Aug. 20, 2007.

The right-foot New Balance runner was located May 22, on Kirkland Island in the Fraser River, not far from the site of Tuesday's discovery.

RCMP said they will try to determine if the two New Balance shoes are linked.

Linteau said the challenge with such a discovery in the Fraser River is that the remains could have come from anywhere along the more than 1,300-kilometre length of the river.

"As far as northern B.C.," Linteau said. "So we are exploring the possibility that they could be missing fishermen, missing people that may have fallen into the water."

She said police are reluctant to say the latest discovery of remains are human without DNA confirmation because of two previous hoaxes.

"We want to proceed cautiously until we know what exactly we are dealing with," Linteau said in a news release.

All the other feet were located at several sites around Georgia Strait between 2007 and Aug. 4, 2008.

That's also when human remains were found in a runner washed up on the U.S. San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington State.

Police have determined that two of the runners - found Feb. 8 on Valdez Island and June 16 off Richmond - are a match.

DNA testing linked one foot to a depressed man who disappeared in 2007 but the other remains have not been identified.

Officials believe none of the feet were cut off and that it appears all the remains were "naturally disarticulated" from their bodies.

That fits with expert theories that when a human body is submerged in the ocean, parts like arms, legs, hands, feet and the head usually separate naturally.

The discovery of dismembered feet, all in buoyant sneakers, has been headline-grabbing world news for the last year.

The sixth foot was discovered on a beach on Juan de Fuca Strait, about 50 kilometres west of Port Angeles.

Authorities in the United States have said the black, size-11 shoe was an Everest brand. The sock found inside the shoe was described as a Levi's brand tube sock.

Linteau said investigators are revisiting missing persons files and trying to get DNA profiles from family members.

Dr. John Butt, a forensic pathologist and former chief medical examiner in Alberta and Nova Scotia, said earlier this year that finding the feet in the same area is difficult to explain, although that's not the case with the condition of the feet.

Butt said a foot and leg will separate naturally, in water or in the ground, given enough time.

"When tissue softens to the point that ligaments have no strength, the leg will detach from the foot," he said.

"There is no other clothing applied to the body as tightly as a shoe, except maybe a belt. A shoe is tight and stays on the foot and the shoe is buoyant

Hi Deb, that's so gruesome but interesting in that the body parts seperate like that, does it apply to more intimate appendages lol

Apologies if that offends, it just struck me as funny.
Will delete if you think I should Deb.

Seems odd to me that all these people wore trainers/runners, I suppose they stay on more than perhaps an ordinary tie up shoe but still rather odd.

Hope you are ok. Deb.

Lizxx

Hi Liz, No offence talken ;)

The mystery right now is what happened to my old thread?
I can't think of why it would have offended or upset anyone.
Liz, you added to the old thread, see if it is in your bookmarks please.

I'm OK. I was feeling "normal" today for the first time in months. I even mentioned it to the girls from work when they phoned. I spoke too soon, back on the morpene ;(

Deb

Oh poor you, Deb, hope you feel more consistently better soon.

There have been lots of threads disappearing, including the Garden of Memories, and the In Memoriam one so yours could have gone the same way, gr don't seem to care about it, I mailed them recently and got no sensible reply.
What was the title of the previous thread - it would take me hours to go through all mine at the mo and I must get to bed in a bit.

Let me know if you remember the title.
Lizxxx

morning ladies
just thought I would pop in before getting ready for work and saw your thread Deb and its so interesting. I didn't see any of the old thread but will watch this one with interest - love anything like this lol x

Deb, I had not added to your last thread, but did bookmark it. It is gone from my bookmarks, so must be it the great beyond.

Gail

Hi Deb,
I had bookmarked the old thread as well but it has gone into the great beyond.

I saw on the news tonight that the authorities think there is a possibility that this new foot is a match found to one of the earlier ones. What has been going on is sure very strange!

Teresa

Any news as to whether they've been able to use the DNA profiles to figure out the geographical ancestry of the remains? They must know whether they come from Asia or the North American continents.

Rose

It is very strange, where on earth are the rest of the bodies!

The latest:

DNA tests have confirmed a match between a left foot that washed up in the Fraser River last month and a right foot found in May on Kirkland Island, B.C.

The feet belonged to the same woman, whose identity has not yet been determined, the B.C. Coroners Service said Friday.

The left foot was discovered on Nov. 11 in Finn Slough in the south arm of the Fraser in Richmond, a suburb of Vancouver. The right foot was located May 22 on Kirkland Island, also in the Fraser River.

Both feet were found in size 7 New Balance running shoes.

"Investigations by the RCMP, Delta Police Department and the coroners service to determine the identities for this pair, the pair of male feet matched on July 10 and a remaining right foot are ongoing," Terry Foster, a senior public affairs officer, said in a news release.

'There is no forensic evidence at this time to support anything other than disarticulation.'
— Terry Foster, B.C. Coroners Service"An ID was confirmed on the right foot found on Aug. 20, 2007, at Jedediah Island near Parksville but was withheld at the request of the family," he said.

Six feet have washed up on B.C.'s coastline since August 2007.

"In all cases, these remains appear to have naturally separated from the body. There is no forensic evidence at this time to support anything other than disarticulation as there are no tool or trauma marks on the remains," Foster said.

A sneaker encasing a human foot was discovered south of B.C. in Washington State in August this year.

The RCMP have said that size 11 shoe does not fit with any of those found on the feet in B.C. But authorities in Washington said the shoe could have come from Canada due to the nature of the currents that move through the Juan de Fuca Strait, which separates Vancouver Island and Washington's Olympic Peninsula.

RCMP spokeswoman Const. Annie Linteau said Friday that matching the feet is only one part of the investigation.

"It's certainly a good step in our investigation," she said. "We still have to look at all relevant missing persons' files [and] the DNA profiles that we have on file in an attempt to ID those remains," she said.

Like the pun Deb, a good STEP in our investigation lol

The mystery continues:

http://www.theprovince.com/news/videos/index.html#dyAHkMJ8YQEKlevvvaKtwhkruJvz8vgD

Deb

I feel embarrassed by my flippant remarks of last year Deb, I am sorry.

This is really spooky tho isn't it? Surely one of the feet must have been identified as belonging to someone by now?

Hope you are ok

Lizx

Really weird that you should start this thread again Deb....It was only last week that I was pondering on it. I did wonder if any more had been found and if the authorities had found out who the feet belonged to......They must belong to someone....surely.

It's time to call in Inspector Foote of the Yard!


xxxxxx mick

Yet another one found!

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Updated+Ninth+human+foot+found+washed+West+Coast/3452455/story.html

Somebody must be footless and fancy free.


xxxxxx mick

probably "legless" as well!!

Footloose and fancy free Mick, hence the losses.

Wonder if any further info found ?

Lizx