Cybermancer wrote:Dr. Boggs,

As of May 26th, anyone with an internet connection could have known you'd be in the area. So be wary as it seems possible that the jokester in this case likely accesses this site.

Good luck.

Fifth severed foot found on Canadian coast wrote:A severed human foot was found washed up on an island on the western coast of Canada this week, the fifth detached foot found in the area in the past 11 months, according to local police and media reports.

The foot was found Monday on the shore of Westham Island south of Vancouver, according to Constable Sharlene Brooks of the Delta Police Department in British Columbia.

The severed left foot, which was in a shoe, was taken to a coroner for DNA tests, she added.

The foot was one of five found in area recently, she said.

"Our first step is to establish identity," Brooks said. "It is a little mysterious, but we don't know if it is linked to others."

According to the Vancouver Sun newspaper, the other four feet found in the area since August were right feet. See where the feet are turning up »

The gruesome discoveries have garnered a lot of attention, Brooks said. But it may be some time before police determine why so many severed feet have been found.

"We suffer from the CSI effect -- people think this can happen very quickly," she 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 given birth 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 if the feet could belong to a group of men who were in a plane that recently crashed in the waterway where the feet were found.

"But there has also been rumors about gangs and stuff," said Diane Selkirk, a freelance writer who lives near where one of the feet was found.

"At first, the talk about it was really humorous. But as more feet turned up, the talk became sinister," she said. "These are pristine islands, not the place where you would expect to find a bunch of severed feet."

Sixth severed foot surfaces off Canadian coast wrote:CNN) -- A severed foot -- the sixth in 11 months -- washed up on the shore of a Canadian island on Wednesday, police said.

The right foot was found by a local 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 told CNN she walked down 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 severed 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 if 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," 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."

Severed foot found on B.C. coast linked to depressed missing man: RCMP wrote:VANCOUVER - RCMP have linked a severed foot found off the coast of B.C. to a depressed man who went missing a year ago.

Five feet have washed up in the Georgia Strait in the last year, each encased in a running shoe.

Sgt. Pierre Lemaitre said the foot in question was linked to the man through DNA testing.

"The major crime investigators were able to notify a family that one of the found feet was a match with their familial DNA," he said.

He said the man is not being identified at the family's request.

"We're being very sensitive to the family's demands," he said, adding further information will be released on Monday.

"They wanted the time to reach out to their immediate family and share the news among themselves."

Lemaitre added that DNA testing has ruled out that any of the feet came from brothers Doug and Trever DeCock, who died in a float plane crash near Campbell River three years ago.

Only one of the five bodies from that wreck was recovered and the wreckage was never found.

Two of the men who disappeared with the plane have been ruled out, police have said.

Lemaitre also said the family of a fisherman who fell overboard in the Strait of Georgia some time ago has also been notified none of the feet came from their family member.

"Based on their DNA, the feet do not match that individual," he said.

Lemaitre would not comment on reports that a U.S. coroner in Washington State's San Juan Islands had found a footless body in his care.

San Juan County coroner Randy Gaylord said a hiker found the remains of an as-yet unidentified man on Orcas Island in Puget Sound in March 2007.

"We have a skeleton except for the right arm, the left hand, and both feet," Gaylord told The Canadian Press on Saturday. "Also, we're missing a few ribs and a (lower jaw bone)."

He said tissue samples were sent to the FBI in an attempt to identify the man. Inquiries were also made with other American as well as Canadian authorities, he said.

It was last week that Gaylord said he received a call from the B.C. Coroner's Office to see if there might be a connection between the Canadian feet and the American remains.

He said U.S. officials are hoping the man's dental work might be recognized by relatives. The molars had a number of gold-inlay fillings.

"We received several inquiries but no matches so it became a cold case," he said.

Foul play is not suspected in the American find.

"We believe that the feet became separated in a natural way as part of the decomposition process," Gaylord said. "We can't be sure if these remains are connected to the feet until we do additional testing."

A team of Canadian investigators has been working on the bizarre case since the first foot washed up last August on Jedidiah Island in the Strait of Georgia.

Two weeks ago, police said a foot found on Valdez Island on Feb. 8 and another foot found June 16 on Westham Island, more than 40 kilometres away and across the strait, belong to the same man.

Last Aug. 26, a right foot was found inside a man's size 12 Reebok sneaker on Gabriola Island, in the strait.

And another foot laced inside a New Balance runner, and the only one belonging to a woman, was found May 22 on Kirkland Island in the Fraser River.

Investigators said on July 10 that DNA testing has determined two of the five feet belonged to one man, another foot is from a female and the remaining two right feet are from males.

A sixth discovery last month turned out to be a hoax, with an animal paw stuffed inside a shoe, but that didn't deter public interest in the case.

The disembodied feet have been the subject of watercooler speculation and wild conspiracy theories.

Pathologist Dr. John Butt said shortly after the fifth foot was found that the reason the feet were discovered at all is because they were tightly laced in buoyant running shoes.

He said feet would simply be separated from the body by the forces of the ocean current as the bodies decomposed and the shoe, along with the foot, would float to the surface.

Eighth severed foot washes up on Canada's Pacific coast wrote:VANCOUVER, Canada (AFP) - Another severed foot inside a dirty athletic shoe has washed up on Canada's Pacific shore, following seven similar gruesome discoveries since August 2007, police said Thursday.

The foot in a white Nike running shoe, size 8.5, was discovered Tuesday by two men walking on a beach in a suburb of Vancouver, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement.

The British Columbia coroners office is conducting a forensic autopsy and other tests to try to match it to missing persons, police said.

Seven feet were previously found along the rugged coast of British Columbia province and the neighboring US state of Washington, including one later determined to have belonged to a missing man who was depressed.

DNA testing has not yet determined the identities of the others, said police.

Scientists say the feet could have drifted dozens or thousands of kilometers (miles) because human body parts can remain intact in water for years when protected by shoes or sturdy clothing.

"There has been no evidence to date to support foul play in relation to these discoveries and it appears that all remains separated from the body, disarticulated, through a natural process," police said.