Peninsula Daily News news sources
The first severed human foot clad in a running shoe to wash ashore since one found on the North Olympic Peninsula 3½ months ago has turned up on a beach in British Columbia.
The Strait of Georgia, separating Vancouver Island with the British Columbia mainland north of the U.S-Canada border, is where six of the seven feet have been found since the first discovery in August 2007.
The running shoe found Tuesday — a left-foot New Balance sneaker — raises the possibility that it might be a match to a foot in a right-foot New Balance shoe that was found on Kirkland Island in the Fraser River delta south of Vancouver city on May 22.
DNA testing showed the foot belonged to a female, and British Columbia authorities say they’ll do forensic DNA testing on Tuesday’s find to see if they have a match.
Out walking the dogs
The latest discovery was made by Diane Johnston, the wife of a former provincial legislator. She was out walking the couple’s three dogs on a beach near where the Fraser River empties into the Strait of Georgia.
Johnston told the Vancouver Sun that she hopes the find will help determine the identity of the victim so that her family might find some solace from having even just a fragment of the body recovered.
“I feel a great deal of empathy for a family in that situation,” she said.
Despite attempts at DNA matching, only one of the feet has so far been identified to a person by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or the British Columbia Coroners Service.
It belonged to a depressed man who went missing in 2007, the RCMP said in July.
The RCMP on Wednesday reacted cautiously to the new find because two hoaxes have been perpetrated in Canada since the fifth foot was discovered June 16.
On Aug. 1, a camper found a men’s black high-top sneaker containing the remains of a human foot near the mouth of Jim Creek at Pysht. It is the only one of the seven severed discovered outside Canadian waters.
The discovery of dismembered feet, all in buoyant sneakers, has been headline-grabbing world news for the past year.
Separated naturally
Authorities on both sides of the border say all of the feet apparently separated naturally as bodies decomposed in the water.
In Vancouver on Wednesday, RCMP Constable Annie Linteau said that investigators are revisiting missing persons files and trying to get DNA profiles from family members.
The discoveries so far:
• Foot No. 1 was found Aug. 20, 2007, on Jedediah Island in the northern Strait of Georgia. It was a male’s right foot in a Campus brand sneaker, size 12. The type of shoe was produced in 2003 and sold primarily in India.
• Foot No. 2 was found Aug. 26, 2007, on Gabriola Island, off Vancouver Island near Nanaimo. It was a male’s right foot in a Reebok sneaker, size 12. The shoe was produced in 2004 and distributed primarily in North America.
• Foot No. 3 was found Feb. 2 on Valdes Island, southeast of Nanaimo. It was a male right foot in a Nike sneaker, size 11. This Nike shoe model was sold only in Canada and the U.S. from Feb. 1 to June 30, 2003.
DNA testing has indicated it came from the same man as foot No. 5 (below).
• Foot No. 4 was found May 22 on Kirkland Island near where the Fraser River empties into the Strait of Georgia.
It was a female’s right foot in a New Balance sneaker, size 7. DNA testing has identified it as the only female foot found so far.
This type of New Balance shoe was produced in June 1999 and distributed through major retail stores.
• Foot No. 5 was found June 16 on Westham Island, southwest of Vancouver city. It was a male’s left foot in a Nike sneaker, size 11.
• Foot No. 6 was found Aug. 1 at Pysht, 30 miles west of Port Angeles in Clallam County. It was a men’s Everest brand black hiking-style shoe, size 11. The sock inside was Levi’s brand.
