A third severed foot has washed up on a Gulf Island. All three are right feet, and all were in sneakers.
“It is unusual,” RCMP Const. Annie Linteau said yesterday. “We are in the preliminary stages of this particular investigation, and, of course, we will not enter into speculation.”
The latest foot was found Friday on the east side of Valdes Island, south of Gabriola Island.
The first foot was found last August on nearby Jedidiah Island. The second was found a week later on Gabriola.
Nanaimo coroner Dave Sherstone said all three feet have been sent to Vancouver for forensic study. “They’ll try to extract DNA,” said Sherstone.
He said it’s impossible to say where the feet may have originated or if they came from a single source such as an accident. “It’s all current and tidal action, it could come from anywhere,” he said. “The reason these things come to the surface is they float.”
Police said DNA from the first two feet did not match DNA in police databases.
Jeff Dolen, B.C.‘s assistant deputy chief coroner, said although it is somewhat common to find individual body parts, this is “the first instance of three such similar remains being discovered” in such proximity. “We’ll be using pathology examinations and anthropology examinations to garner as much information as we possibly can about the remains,” he said.
A body in the ocean will first sink, and then, depending on the depth, float back to the surface as it becomes bloated with gas.
It is common for hands, feet and the head to detach as a body decomposes, said
Gail Anderson, a forensic entomologist from Simon Fraser University who has submerged pigs in the ocean to study decomposition.
Generally, she said, those limbs do not float.
“Obviously there’s some sort of current picking up light items and washing them to those particular areas,” said Anderson.
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