CANADA:The finding of similar body parts off British Columbia seems to be pushing coincidence to its limits, writes Helen Pidd
Canadian police are investigating the mystery of three right feet that have turned up in British Columbia in the past six months.
The first was found in August on an isolated island when a 12- year-old girl beachcombing with her family came upon a size 12 running shoe with a human right foot still inside.
Six days later, a couple hiking around coves on another remote island found another size 12 right foot in a trainer under a tree trunk. Then, last month, another right foot was spotted, this time bobbing about in the water off a third island.
The discoveries may sound like a film plot, but the solution to the mystery is not obvious to local police, who have collected DNA from the remains but cannot match them to anyone.
Oceanographer Dr Simon Boxall said: "It is not that unusual for body parts to turn up in the sea - they can be the result of a fishing accident or a whole body getting hit by a passing ship, for example - but the fact that all three were clustered so close together does suggest dodgy dealings."
Forensic anthropologist Brenda Clark told the Provence newspaper it was impossible to make accurate estimates of gender, age, stature or ancestry just by looking at a foot.
Looking at a map of where the feet were found does allow educated guesses as to where they may have come from, said Boxall.
"Looking at the oceanography . . . the likelihood is that they originated from within the Vancouver area itself," he said.
"That's because in order for items to get washed into the . . . quite narrow strait, they would have to go on quite a tortuous journey and wouldn't have been in such good condition and so close together when they were found, even though the trainers would allow the feet to happily pootle for some time." As for why all three feet were right and not left, Boxall believes it is a coincidence.
Not everyone agrees.
Curtis Ebbesmeyer, a former professor of oceanography at the University of Washington, and an expert in floating objects, said: "Left footwear and right footwear often tend to wash up at different times at different places because they float differently. There are beaches that collect mostly rights and other beaches that collect mostly lefts. The winds or the currents sort out left and right footwear."
However, local man Digby Jones was sceptical: "The whole thing is a scam, as far as I'm concerned, all part of a big joke. If they go to the mortuaries on the mainland, they'll find some guy laughing his head off."