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Although Buzzfeed isn't the most credible source at times. They do show and go into detail about Anderson's pig corpse experiments to prove about decomposition in water.

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Since 2007, on a dozen different occasions, human feet have washed up on the British Columbia shoreline. The most recent foot was discovered near Port Renfrew this month.

Darryl Dyck / Canadian Press

In each case the foot has been found inside a running shoe.

The sudden and regular appearance of the disembodied feet led to speculation that perhaps a serial killer was on the loose, leaving the body parts behind as grisly trophies.

Others wondered if plane or boat accidents at sea were the reason. In 2008, after the sixth foot had washed ashore, Vancouver Sun readers suggested it could be "anyone who works with cadavers - some university students having a good laugh."

The reason these feet keep showing up on the beach is not a mystery, though. Just look at the packaging.

"Something you'll notice is that the only feet washing up are in running shoes," Gail Anderson, a forensic expert at Simon Fraser University's school of criminology, told BuzzFeed Canada. "They're not washing up in stilettos or sandals, or as bare feet."

Thousands of people die at sea every year, and any body that ends up in the ocean naturally starts to disarticulate, or break down, as scavengers go about their work.

Anderson's own experiments with pig carcasses show that this process can take as little as a few days or as long as several months.

Gail Anderson / Ocean Networks / Via oceannetworks.ca

These blackened bone fragments are all that remain of a whole pig carcass after crabs and other scavengers got to it.

"But these [feet] are being held together in that shoe and in that sock," Anderson said. "So very likely the tissue isn't being eaten."

She said it's also common for the feet to be saponified - that is, for the fatty tissue to literally turn to soap. "It's a strange waxy, putty kind of material and pretty much nothing eats it," Anderson said.

Lastly, the materials in a running shoe also help the feet avoid a watery grave at the bottom of the ocean. "It's basically a floatation device, so it's going to hold it all together and get it washed ashore," Anderson said.

Aquagreenmarine / Getty Images

Anderson believes after the first few discoveries, people simply started to be on the lookout for random shoes on the beach, and that's why it seems like such a recent phenomenon. She doesn't blame people for assuming foul play, either, though suicide is probably more likely as a cause of death.

"If you're not in the forensic field and you find a body part, you're naturally going to freak," she said.

Ishmael Daro is a social news editor for BuzzFeed and is based in Toronto.

Contact Ishmael N. Daro at ishmael.daro@buzzfeed.com.

Got a confidential tip? Submit it here.

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Here's Why People Keep Finding Human Feet On The B.C. Coast

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Ishmael Daro is a social news editor for BuzzFeed and is based in Toronto. Contact Ishmael N. Daro at ishmael.daro@buzzfeed.com. Got a confidential tip? Submit it here.

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Along with the real feet that have been found, there's also been several hoax feet that have been planted. This video is targeted toward the blind, but also goes over several theories.

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Since August 20, 2007, several detached human feet have been discovered on the coasts of the Salish Sea in British Columbia (Canada) and Washington (United States). The feet belonged to five men, one woman, and three other people of unknown sex, the two left feet having been matched with two of the right feet.

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It has caused many to speculate about whether or not it really is suicide or if its bodies being dumped and later their shoes found. But most signs point to suicide or accidents. Often confusing the correlation of so many feet to meaning there must be a serial killer as the causation. Even when its been ruled out.

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Most are found still with their socks attached likely trapping air inside, helping with the process of allowing them to float to the surface

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National Geographic did a 40 minute TV documentary about the mystery. They tested some of their theories on pig corpses to prove their theories. Overall it is a decent explanation but leaves much to be desired

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National Geographic Explorer mystery of the disembodied feet

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This is a Map of where every single shoe has been found so far, in the B.C. area, although several more have washed up in Washington, and across the world. Some of the shoes have been a dna match for the same person leading to them having a set. The sets are always found fairly close to each other. Maybe that's to show tides weren't heavily involved in those cases?

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This article goes in to explain why they believe the feet keep popping up and it seems like a well thought out explanation. Shoes have more air pockets and are made lighter now, so when the body decomposes enough the ankle socket allows for the foot to detach and float up to the surface in the shoe. Although theyve got no evidence to support such a claim, and I'm not sure how you could go about testing it. They're trying to identify the final "victim" but they also believe most were suicides.

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Turns out all those detached feet in sneakers that have washed up on B.C. shores since 2007 aren't such a mystery after all - except for two feet belonging to the same unknown man.

"We may eventually figure it out," said Bill Inkster, the former dentist who manages the identification unit for the B.C. Coroners Service.

One foot belonging to the unidentified person - DNA testing revealed it was a man - washed up in False Creek near the Edgewater Casino in August 2011. The man's other foot turned up almost a year later at the dock by the Plaza of Nations.

"I have a condo right close to False Creek so I think about it a lot," said Inkster, whose team at the coroners service has seemingly done the impossible by identifying 10 other sneaker-clad feet that have floated onto B.C.'s shores since 2007. The feet belonged to seven different people.

But the identity of the eighth remains unknown. B.C. keeps a DNA database of people missing and believed dead, but the feet didn't match any of those.

They were able to determine that the man was wearing a pair of size-nine sneakers bought at Walmart in July 2010 or some time after. Because the feet both washed up in False Creek, Inkster is convinced the body is still there under the water.

"There's very little in and out current," Inkster said, adding police divers searched the area after the feet were found. "But it was too murky and it's a huge area to look. Every summer, I feel like getting flippers and a mask and going down there to look for the rest of this guy."

There was nothing suspicious in the deaths of any of the identified victims, Inkster said. The phenomenon of the feet in sneakers started in August 2007, when a girl found a foot on the beach at Jedediah Island, northwest of Vancouver.

"They're not severed, they're disarticulated," Inkster explains. As the body decomposes the feet are separated from the rest of the body. Time was, the feet would have just stayed underwater with the rest of the body. But Nike Air, and all those other sneakers that followed, changed that with designs that featured little air pockets.

"It was just the sudden appearance of the very buoyant shoes," Inkster said. "It turned them into little life jackets, so (the feet) tend to bob up. Historically, they would just lay there."

With the sneaker-clad feet, "there's usually a sock and some bones, no teeth, no fingerprints, no ID - how in the world do you even start to guess who that is?"

B.C.'s unique missing persons DNA database helps, he said, and the coroners service has an anthropologist who helps with investigations by determining approximately how long each foot has been in the water. Exposure to water can degrade the DNA in human remains, but so far DNA matches have been the key to all their identifications.

"We've had a foot showing up, let's say somewhere out on the Fraser River, and then a year later a foot showing up in the Gulf Islands. But they're from the same victim. That's happened," Inkster said.

"Once you've determined who this is, you fill in the story of that person's life, and the story of their last moments before they went missing."

Sadly, the feet generally belong to suicide victims. "That's the common theme."

This isn't just a B.C. phenomenon. Inkster has heard of similar cases elsewhere in the world. The most recent report came last May from Seattle, where volunteers picking up trash at Elliott Bay north of downtown found a foot in a white New Balance sneaker.

"It's just a function of waterways. We've had them in places like Norway, where there are a lot of islands and waterways. Wherever there's a lot of high bridges."

Which bring us back to that guy who may or may not still be in False Creek. If he were suicidal, would he really have jumped off the comparatively low Cambie Bridge?

"If there's anyone who has any clues to this person, we'd love to hear," Inkster said. "I kind of obsess about the last one."
gschaefer@theprovince.com twitter.com/glenschaefer

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the not-quite-solved mystery of the severed feet

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The not-quite-solved mystery of the severed feet

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Turns out all those detached feet in sneakers that have washed up on B.C. shores since 2007 aren't such a mystery after all - except for two feet belonging to the same unknown man. "We may eventually figure it out," said Bill Inkster, the former dentist who manages the identification unit for the B.C.

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This article tries to explain why there may be more feet washing up, and goes into detail about the many conspiracies that have been thrown around over the years. Many are red herrings especially. "Well what if its a serial killer who's tying weights at the ankles?" When there is no proof of trauma to the feet.

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British Columbia, Canada is known for many things: beautiful landscapes, great skiing, the 2010 Winter Olympics - and the human feet that have been washing up on its shores for the last nine years.

Since 2007, 12 human feet clad in running shoes have been found on the shores of British Columbia, from Jedediah Island to Botanical Beach. So far, the provincial coroner's office has identified eight of the 12. Of those eight, there were two pairs. The remaining lone feet, the coroner determined, belonged to men.

It had been nearly four years since a foot sighting, and then on 7 February a new one washed ashore, discovered by a hiker along Vancouver Island's Botanical Beach. Five days later, another one appeared. The coroner's office confirmed they were a pair.

After so many years, the arrival of human feet on the province's shores is old news. But when they started to be discovered in 2007, speculation about where they came from ran rampant and pranksters even planted fake feet on the shores, just to add fuel to the fire.

"We've had people put dog foot skeletons in runners and leave them on the beach," said Barb McLintock, who works at the coroner's office. "And somebody even used old chicken bones."

Since the first foot was discovered, theories about the feet have been numerous and creative. In 2008, a Toronto Star article said that "speculation ranges from natural disasters, such as the tsunami of 2004, to the work of drug dealers, serial killers and human traffickers".

In 2008, the man who found the fifth foot told the Guardian he suspected foul play: "There's someone doing this all right. Think about it, if they tied a chain around someone's ankle and threw them overboard, the foot would just pop off. That could explain it. Maybe they got a lot of bodies stored up in a container and they got washed out. We don't know. There's a lot of stuff goes on over there," he said.

But McLintock said this is not the work of a serial killer or the result of alien abductions. The coroner's office has ruled that all of the identified individuals committed suicide or died accidentally, most likely due to storms near the coast.

After several years and a dozen cases, McLintock said their work suggests the feet are separating from the bodies during decomposition. This occurs more quickly underwater than it would on land.

"The forensic anthropologists can be really sure of that because they can tell looking at the ends of the bones whether they disarticulated naturally or whether there's any sign that any mechanical force has been applied to them, whether there's any trauma, whether there's any tool marks on them," she said. "And none of them have had anything like that. All the evidence is pointed to just this natural articulation process."

But some people still have questions - like why did the feet only start turning up after 2007? The answer may be advancing shoe technology. More and more sports shoes are using air pockets or light foam in their designs, which "eventually allows them to be light enough to float and to wash up on shore".

The coast of British Columbia sees many of these cases because of tide and current patterns, according to McLintock. And while the odd foot pops up elsewhere in the world - for example, several have come ashore in Washington State - British Columbia remains in the spotlight. But McLintock has no doubt that this occurs worldwide, and not just on her coast.

"Presumably there probably are a bunch of running shoes bouncing around out there," she said. "But no one's ever going to find them."
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After four years, why are more feet washing ashore in British Columbia?

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British Columbia, Canada is known for many things: beautiful landscapes, great skiing, the 2010 Winter Olympics - and the human feet that have been washing up on its shores for the last nine years. Since 2007, 12 human feet clad in running shoes have been found on the shores of British Columbia, from Jedediah Island to Botanical Beach.

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This photo shows a picture of each shoe that has washed up on the beach from 2007-2008. It shows a case of patternicity, because the assumed that all of these are immediately related, just because their shoes washed up with feet in them.