Thursday, November 13, 2008

Back On Our Feet Again

For those of you who have been following this blog, a quote from Twin Peaks seems most appropriate: "It is happening ... again."

On Nov. 11th, a new disembodied human foot turned up again near the mouth of the Fraser River in Richmond (a suburb of Vancouver which Heather and I often visit), the same general area as three of the previous feet.

The latest discovery appears, on its surface, to be a match for left foot found on May 22nd; like that one, this is from a female and is encased in a New Balance running shoe.

As we've said before, no foul play is suspected in these creepy-weird findings; police say they believe that the feet are part of a natural process called disarticulation, which is when a human body starts to separate at the joints after prolonged periods underwater. The victims are believed to be people who have died in small plane crashes or committed suicide in the BC area over the past few years, at least for now. DNA tests will determine if this new right foot matches the left one found on May 22.

This brings the total to seven feet that have washed ashore in various places over the last 18 months; here's a map of  the gruesome finds . If you're wondering why heads and torsos, hands, et al haven't washed up, well, there's a logical -- though grisly -- answer for this: heads and torsos are more lightly clothed and were probably eaten by large aquatic creatures like whales or sharks.

The worst part of this -- assuming the disarticulation theory is correct and there's not some bizarre serial killer out there* -- is that so far the RCMP have not confirmed the identities of any of the victims, meaning the families of missing people must continue to agonise over their ill-fated loved ones.

*none of the found feet look like they were forcibly removed -- just want to make that clear.

3 comments:

Aunt Mei said...

Wouldn't they have to have the DNA of said victims or their family members in order for there to be a "match"? Or does the Canadian government have to DNA of all their citizens? Have you already given a sample, or does that not happen until you're an official "citizen"?

:-)

Meri

Plunkybug said...

"Richmond (a suburb of Vancouver which Heather and I often visit)"

Ummm, I've been there *once*, and *only* because we stayed in the Hampton there, not by choice. I don't plan on going back there, do you?

chas_m said...

Sure I do! Richmond's great!

There's ... um ... a Costco, and ... um ...

Okay, *I've* been there several times.

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