Salish Sea human foot discoveries



Since August 20, 2007, at least 20 detached human feet have been found on the coasts of the Salish Sea in British Columbia, Canada, and Washington, US. The first discovery, on August 20, 2007, was on Jedediah Island in British Columbia. Feet have been discovered on the coasts of islands in British Columbia, and in the US cities of Tacoma and Seattle.

In Canada, the B.C. Coroners Service said in December 2017 that foul play had been ruled out by authorities in all previous cases. The feet were usually found in sneakers, which the coroner thought were responsible for both keeping the feet buoyant enough to eventually wash ashore, and for giving the feet enough protection from decomposition to be found relatively intact.

Prior to the recent seeming rush of feet washing ashore, there have been earlier instances going back more than a century, such as a leg in a boot that was found on a Vancouver beach in 1887.

Discoveries
These foot discoveries are not the first ones on British Columbia's coast. One was found in Vancouver in 1887, leading to the place of discovery being called Leg-In-Boot Square. On July 30, 1914, The Vancouver Sun reported that recent arrivals from Kimsquit reported a human leg encased in a high boot was found on a beach near the mouth of the Salmon River (a previous name for the Dean River near Kimsquit, near the headwaters of Dean Channel). It was thought the remains were from a man who had drowned on the river the previous summer.

As of September 2018, 15 feet have been found in the Canadian province of British Columbia between 2007 and 2018, and five in the US state of Washington. The feet include a number of matched pairs.

In British Columbia, 13 of the 15 feet have been identified; the latest was a left foot found on the shore of a rocky beach in West Vancouver, B.C., in September 2018. Through DNA analysis, it was linked to a male that had gone missing earlier that year. Two more unidentified feet washed up on the shore of Botanical Beach on the West coast of Vancouver Island (adjacent to the Strait of Juan de Fuca) in February 2016.

In the U.S., one of these pairs belonged to a woman who jumped from a bridge. Of the two other U.S. feet identified, one foot belonged to a missing fisherman and the other of a depressed man who probably committed suicide. His identity was withheld on request of his family.

After a fifth foot was discovered (of the 20 eventually found), the story began to receive increased international media attention. With major headlines from newspapers such as the Melbourne Herald Sun, The Guardian, and the Cape Times in South Africa, the story elicited much speculation about the cause of the mystery, originating from "morbid fascination" with this type of subject, as stated by one scientist who identifies remains of victims. On his late night talk show David Letterman questioned two Canadian audience members about the mystery.

Another apparently human foot, discovered on June 18, 2008, on Tyee Spit near Campbell River on Vancouver Island, was a hoax. The hoax was a "skeletonized animal paw" which was put in a sock and shoe and then stuffed with dried seaweed. Royal Canadian Mounted Police launched an investigation.

After the 11th foot was found on August 31, 2011, in Vancouver, several running shoes containing what police suspected was raw meat were found washed up on Oak Beach, British Columbia.

Level of rarity
Decomposition may separate the foot from the body because the ankle is relatively weak, while buoyancy caused by air either inside or trapped within a shoe would allow it to float away. According to Simon Fraser University entomologist Gail Anderson, extremities such as the hands, feet, and head often detach as a body decomposes in water, but rarely float.

However, finding feet and not the rest of the bodies has been deemed unusual. Finding two feet has been guessed at "million to one odds" and has thus been referred to as "an anomaly" by one police officer. The finding of the third foot made it the first time a police officer interviewed knew that three such discoveries had been made so close to each other.

In popular culture
In his novel, Dregs (2011), the Norwegian award-winning author Jørn Lier Horst gives a fictional explanation for the foot findings.

The 2020 novel Crooked River by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child begins with severed feet found on a beach inspired by this event.

The episode "The Feet on the Beach" of the American crime-procedural comedy-drama Bones aired April 7, 2011, where eight pairs of dismembered feet were discovered on the U.S.-Canada border.

The February 24, 2015 episode of the TV series Rizzoli & Isles called "Foot Loose" about various body parts washing up near Boston, showed a map of the Salish Sea area foot discoveries as part of their establishing act.

Popular podcast Stuff You Should Know (also known as SYSK) had an episode about the disembodied feet specifically in British Columbia. It was released June 14, 2016.

In the third episode of Netflix's Dead Boy Detectives (TV series), one of the ghosts brings up the phenomenon as a case for the main cast.