on dismembered feet
By diana on Feb 12, 2016 | In capricious bloviations
Yesterday, thanks to Lynne, I found myself reading the follow grisley article (taken from The Washington Post, here):
They appear on the sand like any piece of sea detritus. Sometimes they’re found, amid the candy wrappers and cracked shells, by volunteers cleaning up the area. Other times a vacationer might glimpse the grisly discard from the corner of her eye, a serene walk along the beach interrupted just like that.
As more people learned about these discoveries, they attracted morbid scavengers to the Pacific Northwest shorelines, where the Salish Sea connects waterways along the west coasts of the United States and Canada.
What these scavengers sought remains a prickling curiosity: severed feet attached to running shoes, washed up from origins unknown.
Sixteen of these detached human feet have been found since 2007 in British Columbia, Canada, and Washington state. Most of these have been right feet. All of them have worn running shoes or hiking boots. Among them: three New Balances, two Nikes and an Ozark Trail.
The most recent one turned up earlier this week.
Charlotte Stevens of British Columbia was taking a walk with her family on Vancouver Island, the CBC reported, when her husband spotted something in the sand.
It was a shoe, which they could see right away. But a closer inspection revealed something more.
“He picked it up and brought it out on to the beach,” she told the CBC, “and we had a look at it for about five minutes and we thought, it almost looks like there is an actual foot bone in it.”
Sure enough, the B.C. Coroners Service confirmed that the shoe came with a dismembered foot. As with the others, there’s no telling for exactly how long the foot was in the water, but the regional coroner, Matt Brown, said the exact model of shoe had gone on the market after March 2013, indicating that it once belonged to someone who went missing between then and December.
Brown is working with the police to link the foot to individuals who disappeared from the area around that time.
If history is any indication, however, the identity associated with the foot will stay adrift.
Over the years, armchair sleuths and scientists alike have used a number of terms to describe the feet: severed, dismembered, detached, disarticulated.
Found, but still lost.
After the first two feet — both right — were found in British Columbia just six days apart from one another, locals began sounding the alarm, and authorities expressed equal surprise.
“Two being found in such a short period of time is quite suspicious,” Cpl. Garry Cox of the Oceanside Royal Canadian Mounted Police told the Vancouver Sun in August 2007.
“Finding one foot is like a million to one odds,” Cox said, “but to find two is crazy. I’ve heard of dancers with two left feet, but come on.”
Five more were found in the next year, including one near Pysht, Wash. Speculation increased, as recounted in a 2008 article in the Toronto Star:
“Speculation ranges from natural disasters, such as the tsunami of 2004, to the work of drug dealers, serial killers and human traffickers.
“One theory concerns a plane crash off Quadra Island three years ago with five men aboard. Only one of the bodies has been found.
“Other theorists believe the coastline is being used as a body dump for organized crime activity; a third scenario is a serial killer is at work.”
But to the disappointment of many a conspiracy theorist, science suggests more mundane answers.
Writing for the Pacific Standard, Spenser Davis pointed out last year that a study on the Puget Sound found that when a body floating in water is “subjected to the push and pull of its environment,” the bones of hands and feet are almost always the first to fall off.
In British Columbia, two of the feet have since been identified as having belonged to people with mental illness, while three others were linked to individuals who probably died of natural causes.
Foul play is not suspected in any of the other cases, though it hasn’t been ruled out, either.
“All of the ones who’ve been identified so far, there’s no mystery,” Gail Anderson, a criminologist at British Columbia’s Simon Fraser University, told the Daily Beast in 2011. “These people were very depressed, unhappy about life, and were last seen heading toward the water. People jump off bridges. They deliberately wish to disappear.”
This is a fair conclusion, as the city of Vancouver is full of bridges.
But there are other points of strangeness. For one, why did the feet start turning up only after 2007, and why have they continued to turn up with such a frequency since then?
The Daily Beast considered the power of the “Vicious Cycle” theory, which suggests that once people became aware of the phenomenon, they started subconsciously — or completely deliberately, in some cases — scanning the shorelines for shoes.
Also a likely answer.
And yet — it’s hard not to wonder.
“There are so many coincidences taking place,” forensics consultant Mark Mendelson told the Daily Beast in 2011. “Everybody who jumps off a bridge is wearing runners?… 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.”
I thought...hmph. Interesting.
Then, at 3:55am today, I found myself awake and responding to an article Jane had sent me. I responded then linked her to the above write-up. The following conversation ensued:
JANE: What are you doing up at this hour?
MOI: The usual. You? [Here, I inserted the link]
JANE: Just woke up. Heard my phone buzz.
....CREEPY!!!! Like I'll be able to get back to sleep now
MOI: Isn't that strange, though?
JAN: Unnerving. Strange. Weird. Gross.
MOI: I was wondering about why they only started finding feet in 2007, too. That fact doesn't mean with the suicide theory. If it did, feet washing up on random shores would be nothing new
JANE: Makes taking walks on the beach totally unappealing.
MOI: At least, in Vancouver.
JANE: I didn't catch how long the area was where feet were being found. The article didn't say--with any conviction--where the feet are coming from. Are they all local or all from far far away?
...It said they were working to identify if they are from missing persons. But I don't remember it saying that any were identified.
MOI: Two or three were. And the feet all seem to be in Vancouver.
JANE: Yes. So creepy. Zombies are coming.
MOI: Foul play. Someone is severing feet. But where are the bodies?
JANE: Must sleep . . . Totally creeped out . . . Think happy thoughts . . . Puppies . . . Flowers . . . Sunshine . . . Friday . . .. Eaten.
MOI: By?
JANE: Sea life.
MOI: Hm. But not the feet?
JANE: They were in the shoe. Nikes not tasty.
MOI: Still don't buy it. If that were true, this would be a common thing. You're funny.
JANE: So what's your theory?
MOI: Foul play. And the natural explanation won't pass the common sense test.
JANE: Starry nights . . . Warm fires . . . Chocolate . . . Guitar music
...So who is killing all these people?
MOI: Starry starry night... Is about Vincent van Gogh
...Which makes me think of severed ears
JANE: Ewwwwe that's not helping!!!!
MOI: YOU BROUGHT IT UP
JANE: Lol I just said one starry. I was not thinking of the painting.
MOI: serial killer or organized crime. My money is on the latter.
JANE: Ewwwww. So disturbing.
...Why?
MOI: Probably because I don't have enough information to rule it out.
...And it just seems more probable to me.
JANE: The lazy river . . . Bookstores . . . Warm bed...
MOI: With a serial killer, were have other pieces washing up.
...Gardens . . . Tomatoes . . . Sweet corn . . . Basketball . . . Scrabble
MOI: Also, how do they know hands and feet come off first? I would assume genitals.
JANE: Because those are the least attached body part. The extremities.
...Ewwwwew
...But clothes...
MOI: Hm. I think they've run experiments.
JANE: Ewwwwew!!! "How was work today?"
MOI: Somewhere, there's a body floating in a bay-like water and police are taking notes.
JANE: Who does that?
MOI: Actually, the US has two body farms.
JANE: Yuck. I think I'll stick to reading books.
...I've heard of that.
MOI: That's where I learned this.
JANE: And by heard of I mean read about.
...Children's books . . . Warm showers . . . Softball...
...I needs must sleep.
MOI: OK.
JANE: I'll be blaming you for any bad dreams :)
...Because ewwwwewe. Totally creeped out.
MOI: Nah.
JANE: I'm seriously creeped out.
MOI: Why? It's just meat.
JANE: Eewwwwee . . . It's a person.
MOI: We're animals like all the rest.
JANE: Hmmmm. But not part of the food supply.
MOI: Yes we are. Sea life. Remember?
...Also, flies and maggots.
...Circle of life and shit.
JANE: Just stop already!!!! I'm totally grossed out now.
MOI: Nonsense.
JANE: Too picturesque.
MOI: I can get you more grossed out
JANE: Lol. Nooooo please no. Go to sleep!!! You neeeed to sleep.
MOI: As I read the article, I thought, "Damn. Those shoes are newer than any I own!"
JANE: You need to be well-rested so you can get up and enjoy being retired!
MOI: If a matched pair washed up, I'd be in business.
JANE: Lol.
MOI: Why wait? I'm enjoying it now.
JANE: Hahaha. Yes, I think you are enjoying making me uncomfortable.
MOI: I was diagnosed with bicep tendentious, tennis elbow, and golf elbow today.
...All on the same arm
JANE: Which arm?
...I didn't know you were into so many sports.
MOI: Could be worse. At least the arm is still attached.
JANE: Ewwwwwwee.
MOI: Left.
JANE: Why do you think your arm has so many issues?
MOI: It's probably all the sports I'm into.
JANE: Which are?
MOI: Everything but swimming. Too dangerous. Your feet fall off and shit.
JANE: Surf fishing? Beach combing? Souvenir collecting?
MOI: Armchair Olympics.
JANE: Ha! Imma be hurting for some peanut M&Ms and Pepsi to get through today.
MOI: Hey. It takes mad skills to hold your coffee for an extra hour under cat gravity.
JANE: Bladder skills? Doesn't explain your arm.
MOI: Cat juggling.
JANE: Hahahahahaha!!!!
...Jail time Or major fines at least.
MOI: I popped something in my elbow last Monday while rescuing Michelle's car from a snowbank.
JANE: Oh yeah. Note to self: don't stick arm between cars and trees.
...I don't have any M&Ms!!!!!
MOI: Still got both my feet, though.
JANE: OMG. Let it (them) go already.
MOI: I'd rather keep them.
...Isn't it time for you to get up, anyway?
JANE: I would hope so.
...No,I get to sleep another hour.
MOI: You'll need to leave early so you can stop at King Soopers for some M&Ms.
JANE: Nonononono. I'll just need bigger shoes then :)
MOI: Did you know crabs love human meat?
JANE: Who does these experiments???? What kind of crab?
MOI: I read that some guy wanted his body left for the crabs when he died. He figured he'd eaten enough of them and it was only fair.
...Snow crabs.
JANE: Haha!
MOI: The really tasty ones.
JANE: I like Maryland Blue Crabs. Steamed with Old Bay. OMG. Yummmmm.
MOIE: With melted butter.
JANE: ...Back massages . . . Kris Delmhorst . . . Burgers from the Casbah . . .
MOI: I wonder if they prefer us dipped in butter.
JANE: If they're from Iowa they would.
MOI: Hahahaha.
JANE: Tax refunds . . . Hugs . . . Fall trees . . .
MOI: I think Iowa crabs are extinct.
JANE: I know several Iowa crabs
MOI: Not enough severed feet to keep them alive.
JANE: Let's hope Severed feet with butter
...Sweet corn...
MOI: Garnished with a fresh Nike.
JANE: No thanks. I'll just take mine plain.
***
I swear. We have our best conversations in the wee hours.
d
4 comments
Diana,
I could have sworn I left a comment lying around here somewhere. Have you seen it?
Dave
This is the first one I’ve seen on this post, Dave. (?)
d
Diana,
Huh. I guess I’m not as computer savvy as I thought.
Anyway, what I tried to say was that I believe the idea that hands & feet are the first parts to separate from a submerged corpse. Also, if you look at the major ocean currents along the West Coast you can imagine that a lot of bodies from the Pacific Northwest, California, and even Baja California could end up in the Vancouver & Seattle area. Take a look at the map here:
(Link isn’t being accepted - Google “Nike Trainers and Rubber Ducks - SEOS” and look for a link to seos-project.eu.)
The North Equatorial Current, the current that moves north past Hawaii, and the North Pacific Current are responsible for the mild winters and rainy climate of the Pac NW because they drive warm water from the tropics right into Vancouver and Seattle. So why not debris and body parts?
When I was a Boy Scout I saw a magazine article about a troop that lived near Vancouver and camped on the coast a lot. They regularly found Japanese glass fishing floats washed up on the beach, having floated from fishing grounds in the western Pacific. Glass floats fell out of use 20 or 30 years ago but people still find one in that area now and then.
It’s possible many of those feet belong to victims of foul play, but they could just as easily come from California or Mexico as from Canada. (Even though Vancouver has a reputation for having a lot of organized crime, much of it from the Far East.)
Dave
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