Coroner Thinks They're From Crash Victims; Other Theories Explored, Too

Something strange is afoot near Vancouver, BC. Residents are becoming increasingly creeped-out by a recent phenomenon -- human feet washing up on the shores of area waterways, possible remnants from a plane crash in the area off the coast three years ago.

The first foot was found last August, on Gabriola Island. The fifth was found, still wearing a shoe, on Monday by a man walking along the Fraser River. Police declined to describe the latest foot by size, left/right or man/woman, but they did reveal that it was the first left foot to be found. The other four were all right feet, encased in running shoes.

The coroner insists there's no evidence the feet were severed. Experts say that feet normally become detached from the legs of people who die in water as the flesh decays, in a process called disarticulation. Because they're in shoes, and have a chemical makeup avoided by microbes, feet may persist longer than other body parts.

Complicating the investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is the fact that the feet could have travelled a great distance, carried from the other side of the world by ocean currents. In the meantime, relatives of the four victims of the plane crash have provided DNA samples, in case the feet originated locally.

The Mounties, famous for always getting their man, are determined to solve this mystery, even if it turns out not to involve foul play. So far, investigators don't even know if the feet are from a common accident or location.

"We're looking at all possibilities... and that includes that they could have been connected," RCMP spokeswoman Annie Linteau the Times of London.

Well, yeah... they all USED to be connected...

FMI: www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/