METRO VANCOUVER - A human left foot was found Monday on Westham Island in Ladner - the fifth disarticulated foot discovered since August on B.C.'s south coast. Delta Police and the B.C. Coroners Service are trying to establish the identity of the remains and determine whether they can be linked to the recovery of four other feet. The last one found before this was located just upriver last month.'At this point we really don't know what we're dealing with,' said Const. Sharlene Brooks Monday evening. 'Without the forensic side of it established, it's too early to say there are linkages.' But, she said, the discovery is being treated as a criminal investigation.
Monday's discovery was a left foot, while the other four were right feet. All five had been submerged in water. Three feet were discovered on Gulf Islands beaches: Jedediah Island (Aug. 20), Gabriola Island (Aug. 26) and Valdes Island (Feb. 8). A fourth was found encased in a running shoe on Kirkland Island, near the Massey Tunnel, on May 22.
Brooks said that at this time of year, it's not unusual to find human remains washed up on shore. 'It's just unique that this is another foot. That's for certain,' she said.
A passerby noticed the foot floating in a shoe, and pulled it to shore before calling police, Brooks said.
She said it could be some time before police are able to say whether the foot's DNA matches a known missing person, or any of the right feet found previously. 'When you're trying to confirm identity, you need to be able to compare it with something,' she said. 'And when you don't have that, you might have DNA, but you don't know to whom it belongs.'
A Seattle oceanographer who has been following the mystery said Monday that the latest discovery bolsters his 'working hypothesis' that the feet came down the Fraser River. 'If they all washed down the river and got dispersed, then you could explain all the patterns together,' said Curtis Ebbesmeyer, who is working on a book about flotsam.
Ebbesmeyer said this is 'probably one of the more unique cases' he's heard of in his career, and has become 'worldwide news.' Statistically, he compared the finding of five human feet with no corresponding body parts to 'drawing a royal flush a couple of times.'
But he said the case is no laughing matter. 'The rate at which the body parts is washing up is starting to be alarming,' he said. 'It's very serious. I mean you're talking potentially five different people, potentially a serial killer, so there's something going on here that's beyond our imagination right now.'