Prankster responsible for most recet foot in the Birtish Columbia Floating foot case

A prankster is responsible for a sixth foot that washed on British Columbia shores, a hoax that raised fears among the families of missing persons and prompted the RCMP to launch a separate investigation.


The B.C. Coroner's Service said Thursday and RCMP confirmed that the foot found on a Vancouver Island beach the day before was not human, but in fact a skeletonised animal paw stuffed inside a sock and a running shoe.


"We have to say that this is a despicable act; we're not going to sit back and let this go," said RCMP Const. Annie Linteau. "We're now embarking on a whole new investigation, which could involve public mischief charges against the person or persons involved."


"We're talking many families of missing loved ones who are really watching and wondering that every time something is found is it their loved one?"


A woman walking along a beach Wednesday near Campbell River, on Vancouver Island, said she spotted the "foot." Authorities believed it was the sixth to wash ashore in the past year.


The first right foot was found Aug. 20 on Jedidiah Island in the Strait of Georgia. On Aug. 26, another right foot was found inside a man's size 12 Reebok sneaker on nearby Gabriola Island.


A third was found in the same area, on the east side of Valdez Island, on Feb. 8.


The fourth foot was found May 22 on Kirkland Island in the Fraser River, only a kilometre away from the site in Ladner where the fifth foot, a size 10 left foot, was found on Monday.


The coroner's service said a forensic pathologist and anthropologist examined the running shoe found on Wednesday and determined an animal paw had been placed inside the shoe and packed with dried seaweed.


The revelation didn't stop the growing public interest in the story. On websites and around water coolers, wild explanations and conspiracy theories about the found feet abound.


In the one-time hunting ground of serial killer Robert Pickton, some believe another killer is on the loose. Another person wondered if the feet were a bad prank by a "twisted mortician."


Organized crime, the mob and maniacs are all under consideration.


"Methinks that the gangsters have been attempting to provide cement shoes to their victims but are economizing and only doing half of the job," wrote one wag.


Some muse about a plane crash off the West Coast in which the bodies were never found, while others speculate that the feet could belong illegal immigrants stowed away aboard a vessel that sank off the coast.


There was a small plane crash in the Gulf Islands west of the B.C. mainland three years ago and the coroner's office has been trying through DNA matches to determine if the feet belonged to victims of that crash.


One person believes they are the remains of some of the thousands of people who died in Indonesia in the tsunami in December 2006.


"The current runs north from Indonesia and it took over three years for the feet to drift here... 30,000 to 40,000 bodies washed into the sea, some body parts should drift ashore at some point," they wrote.

So far, investigators have said DNA testing has failed to match with any known samples.

B.C. Solicitor General John van Dongen said he'd spoken with the province's chief coroner and was assured every effort is being made to try to identify the remains.

"It is certainly a concern and raises questions. But at this point, any further comment I could make would really be speculation and that wouldn't be appropriate under the circumstances," van Dongen said.

Dr. John Butt, a forensic pathologist and former chief medical examiner in Alberta and Nova Scotia, said finding the feet in the same area is difficult to explain, but what is not difficult to explain are the conditions.

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

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

Police have indicated that the bones of the found feet separated naturally in this way.

All five feet were found encased in sneakers, which also doesn't surprise Butt.

"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."