Another mystery foot in BC

[Ben D]

Sixth foot found in Canadian mystery a hoax: police
June 20, 2008 - 8:48AM
Source: ABC
A detached foot found on a beach in Western Canada yesterday does not belong to a human, but instead is a severed animal paw stuffed inside a running shoe, provincial coroners said.

Since August, five human feet have been found along the rugged south coast of the province of British Columbia, sparking international speculation about a possible murder mystery, or that they are remains of airplane or boat accident victims.

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

On Wednesday (local time), a witness and police said the sixth detached foot to wash up in less than one year was found on a beach in Campbell River, 220 kilometers north-west of Vancouver.

The foot was in a men's size 10, right-foot Adidas running shoe, Police Sergeant Mike Tresoor said at the time.

But in a terse news release the British Columbia Coroners Service said a forensic pathologist and an anthropologist had "determined a skeletonised animal paw was inserted into the shoe with a sock and packed with dried seaweed."

"It is the position of (the service) that this type of hoax is reprehensible and very disrespectful to the families of missing persons," the coroner's report said.

"It fuels inappropriate speculation and creates undue anxiety for families and communities while wasting valuable investigative time and resources."

Police said they will press charges against the jokester.

- AFP

Link

[Jeff]

Thanks Ben!

[AhabsOtherLeg]

I don't know if it's already been mentioned, but I heard today on Radio 4 that one of the reasons these feet might be turning up either ahead of, or instead of, all the other body parts is because of the fashionable air bubble things in the soles of the sneakers. I don't know why I find the thought of that so strange and disturbing, but I do. Does no one wear decent boots anymore?

Even more disturbing is that this story has reached Radio 4! It's certainly not narrowing in scope, as I would've expected, if my Russian Mafia idea had been right (and I never once mentioned concrete shoes - they're so last season :- ankles chained to an old fridge or car engine would be more like it).

Are we now officially at the point where there are more feet than could be accounted for by all the people who were on board the missing plane? And was everyone on that plane wearing sneakers? (I don't expect anyone to be able to answer that).

It has been confirmed as a criminal investigation, though, and it sounds like an unusually secretive one.

There are three things I'm thinking of now. Wasn't there a town in America where people were literally dismembering themselves so as to claim disability money, with most members of the community being in on the "scam" (I say scam in commas, because it sounds like pretty hard work to me), since the sole source of local employment had moved out?

I'm sure there was a documentary about it - many of the people seemed to be going way beyond the call of duty in the severity of the injuries they were self-inflicting. I'm not suggesting that the same thing could be happening here, but it did come to mind. There's no way they would all inflict the exact same injury on themselves, though. And why waste a good pair of sneakers if you're that desperate?

Another thought was the Snowtown case in Australia, where a pretty vast number of people were murdered so that a not very organised ring (or a very organised one, for much darker motives, depending who you believe) could continue to claim their social security benefits. But I think the only reason that particular case springs to mind is because the trail of evidence lead to a barrel in an old bank vault full of human feet.
A serial killer, or killers, have been mentioned. Seems possible.

The third possibility is that C2W is right again. On balance of probablilty,
that's the one I'd go with. She's always right.

There's a last thought that just occurred to me, and it ties in with what has been said about both the use of shackles and the missing plane: - what five people were aboard, and where were they headed, and who were they? Is the info on the missing plane and the missing people available? If it is already somewhere on this thread, I apologise. I need to read back over the new posts.

[AhabsOtherLeg]

Sorry, the last right foot was a hoax? So we still have four rights and a left?

[Jeff]

Sorry, the last right foot was a hoax? So we still have four rights and a left?

Yes, just the sixth one was a hoax. There are still five human feet.

[barracuda]

That's one messed up hoax.



At least I don't have to futz with the map!

[AhabsOtherLeg]

It's always so much better if they lose a back leg (dogs, I mean). Neither situation is ideal, obviously, but a missing back leg doesn't seem to hinder them so much. That lad looks unhappy.

If I read right, no details on the missing people from the plane have been released to the public, and there is no suggestion of opening a missing persons' inquiry?

So did these feet belong to "non-people"?

Sad to say, there are plenty of them around. Illegal immigrants, trafficked workers (in whatever trade), and the more figurative homegrown non-existents. People like Pickton's victims, as mentioned above, who only register as missing, or even as officially alive, when they are eventually found dead.

[Jeff]

Severed foot DNA doesn't match lost flight
After 'sixth foot' hoax, families of crash victims dealing with double blow as DNA test comes back negative.
Lori Culbert, Vancouver Sun
Published: Friday, June 20, 2008

The families of victims of a Quadra Island plane crash were crushed Thursday by a double dose of bad news: A sixth severed foot found Wednesday turned out to be an ugly hoax, and a DNA link has been ruled out between three feet found earlier and two of the four crash victims whose bodies are still missing.

...

The coroners service has had trouble creating DNA profiles for the other two plane crash victims, brothers Doug and Trevor DeCock, so it is not known yet whether they are DNA matches for any of the feet.

The three feet's DNA was tested earlier against other DNA profiles of missing persons, but not against the crash victims.

No DNA profiles have been created yet for the fourth and fifth feet.

...

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/new ... 74b3243d8a

[brainpanhandler]

Sixth foot found in Canadian mystery a hoax: police

A hoax or a message?

Before I read that the sixth foot was a 'hoax' I had considered the possibility that some employees at a morgue were playing a ghoulish practical joke or some such scenario.

[Fat Lady Singing]

Hi all: It would be nice if the hoaxer would come forward, because it might give important clues about where the real feet came from, if they would have followed a similar path through the currents. But since the hoaxer has already been tarred in the press, they probably won't.

BTW, was anyone else bugged by the article that described theories about serial killers and foot fetishists as "conspiracy theories"? What conspiracy would be involved, unless there were multiple killers involved, or if there was a widespread cover-up (as there seems to have been in the pig farmer case)? It's very clear that "conspiracy theory" = "wild and weird theory about any old thing."

As someone who theorizes on a regular basis about possible conspiracies, I'm offended. Hmph.

Finally, I'm with BrainPanHandler--why be so quick to label it a hoax? A warning is an interesting idea. Or, how about this: A serial killer could have some sort of ritual he might feel compelled to perform whether or not he has a human victim. Or perhaps it's some other kind of ritual--that is, a ritual performed for another (magickal?) purpose.

Wait a moment--some half-connected synapses have fired off teensy little sparks in my brain... weren't there a series of animal foot finds in the not-too-distant past? I want to say one turned out to be an orangutan foot? Maybe the feet were found in dumpsters? Does that ring any bells for anyone?

[brainpanhandler]

A warning is an interesting idea

.

Actually that's a refinement of the term I used, which was message, and it leads rather presciently to what I was thinking. Several members have conjectured about drug running in the area. Perhaps the dog's paw belonged to a drug sniffing dog. Perhaps it's like a signature to claim responsibility for the feet and make it clear that if you try to screw with their operations this is what will happen.

Of course, I am not sure if a hoaxer was actually caught or not. From the article Ben D posted it is impossible to tell.

Police said they will press charges against the jokester.

Does anyone know if this means that the jokester was caught?

[brainpanhandler]

Or perhaps it's some other kind of ritual--that is, a ritual performed for another (magickal?) purpose.

I did some digging around when the previous thread was active along these lines.

One interesting bit I ran across was the existence of native american petroglyphs on the islands in the area. Estimates on age seem to vary quite a lot, anywhere from 1,000 to 8,000 years old.

The link is to a collection of pictures from one of the sites on Gabriola island.

http://www.spokaneoutdoors.com/gab.htm

Picture number 22:



Gabriola island is where one of the feet were found.

Apparently the existence of some of the sites where these petroglyphs can be found are kept quiet so as to minimze damage from vandals, but the locals know where they are.

It is not so hard to imagine sites like this with primordial shamanic roots attracting practitioners of ritual magick.

edit: picture number 22

[barracuda]

Wow. That's quite a bit like the smiley faces.

[Sepka]

Wait a moment--some half-connected synapses have fired off teensy little sparks in my brain... weren't there a series of animal foot finds in the not-too-distant past? I want to say one turned out to be an orangutan foot? Maybe the feet were found in dumpsters? Does that ring any bells for anyone?

I don't recall that, but several years back, a small number of dead animals dressed in clothing were found in Pennsylvania: http://www.rigorousintuition.ca/board/v ... light=deer

[brainpanhandler]

Wow. That's quite a bit like the smiley faces.

Heh, yah it is, except for the lack of a smile. and the big ears and the freaky antennae.

Assuming that this is an authentic petroglyph dating back thousands of years what in god's name was the artist depicting?

I don't want to derail the thread, but I suppose while we are awaiting any further developements...