The Macabre Case of the 21 Severed Feet of the Salish Sea
The Macabre Case of the 21 Severed Feet of the Salish Sea Rhiannon Follow Mar 15 · 11 min read

On August 20th 2007, a young girl visiting British Columbia from Washington State stumbled upon the human remains encased in a shoe (8) among a pile of empty shoes. Over the next twelve years, a total 21 feet have been found along the Pacific Northwest igniting a debate on origin theories from human trafficking, plane crashes, suicides, and coincidence. With the majority of the feet being single feet and found in Canada, Canadian authorities have deemed that the majority are not a cause of foul play (2). With the only consistency being that experts agree the remains found were not forcibily severed; (11) still the rate at which they were found sent shockwaves up and down the coast of Washington State and British Columbia.

The Quadra Island Plane Crash

The locations each of the first give feet were found in the first year seems to indicate they were from the similar sources (via body decomposition) and the time of discovery Oceanographists determined no known currents could have contributed to the spread (9). Detectives at the time had theorized the feet came from the 5 person fatality Quadra Island plane crash that occurred approximately 60–90 miles northwest in 2005 (9). The image below shows the locations of the five feet found in 2007–2008 with the location of the Quadra Island plane crash in Blue (sourced from references 9 & 10). It is likely that some of the feet originate from this plane crash, but there is no proof to date that this is the case; four bodies remain unrecovered (9).

At first, the Quadra Island plane crash makes sense regarding the origin of said feet, but later DNA testing showed one of the feet was female, with the plane crash victims (5 total) were all men. Over the next ten years, feet would pop up all over British Columbia and some in Washington State, deepening the mystery as suddenly the events could not have correlation. All feet found had no signs of actual ‘severing’ or ‘cutting’ with the tendons being cut (11). On August 1, 2008; a foot washed up in Pysht, Washington and started the chain that threw any data correlated theories to the wind (12).

The blue marker is the site of the Quadra Island plane crash in 2005. The red markers are the first five feet found in a year’s time from 2007–2008. © 2020 Electric Consulting LLC. All Rights Reserved.

A Scatter Graph of Feet

As of the date of this article, 21 severed feet have washed to shore within the regional areas along the Salish Sea. © 2020 Electric Consulting LLC. All Rights Reserved.

The discovery of so many feet over the course of a little over a decade is of course astounding and it is quite probable to think that many are victims of Tsunami or some other correlating event. It should be of note that the Makah of Neah Bay Washington were using Metal that was found on shore from shipwrecks and a prior Pre-Columbian tsunami in China which likely resulted in drift pattern (19). Many suspect that the last eight years of victims may be related to the 2011 Tsunami in Japan, and drift patterns for debris correlate this (20), however many of the victims have since been identified and thus unrelated and the feet found do not stretch across the coast as shown in drift patterns and appear concentrated in one specific area.

The Drift Patterns of Debris from the 2011 Tsunami in Japan (20).

The First Year of Five Foots

The National Post reported the situation in which a young girl walking along the shore of Jedediah Island in British Columbia found a human foot within a shoe among a pile of empty shoes (8) on August 20th, 2007. A second foot in a Reebok shoe was found off Gabriola Island, BC on August 26th, 2007. Both shoes were in limited production and date to 2004–2005 (9). The third foot was found February 22nd, 2008 near the mouth of the Fraser River, as were the fourth foot found in May, and the fifth foot, found in June. Sourced from an article on July 11th, 2008 (9) and images from December 13th, 2017, objectively general theories can be sourced from the first discoveries and theories of various investigators.

Conflicting Data Sources

The facts herein are sourced from third party articles with multiple sources that validate the data in question (listed) and compare to date appropriate newspaper databases for correlation. Note that internet archives of prior websites linked to autopsy reports and other detail in older internet posts are no longer valid and redirect to a non-existent webpage. Said site is not archived in any official source for reference with current unidentified remains redirecting to a different URL (5). Via various non-credible sources and credible sources (as listed), some data is provided and used while comparing with newspaper archives. Additionally, variations in patterns among Canadian or US reporting often confuse facts, timelines, and outcome. Thus said discovery timeline was pieced together for data analysis on the feet found along the shores of the West Coast with a sizable amount of information from newspapers, online articles, but are often list conflicting facts including the order in which the feet were found. It is required to determine ‘what’ in quantity before we can answer ‘who’ or ‘why’ and with data sources ranging in unordered quantity of 15–21 feet, determining ‘how many’ is the first step in this research.

Collective Data Varying and Incorrect

Collective data around the cases in question are further muddled by US and Canadian differences to active cases, and journalistic style; with each group often listing a different order of discovery, or withholding/publishing specific information about any given crime, including names of identified victims. The US authorities and journalistic bodies seem to take a more need-to-know approach, enough to where Canadian reporters were the only ones actually broadcasting US foot discoveries. This makes finding information about any given source cumbersome to the point where one might actually look to a Wikipedia Reference as a valid source just to have a centralized repository of data to source from.

Relying on newspaper articles and published online articles for facts, the only thing determined was that the internet was in such a frenzy about this topic that much information became misreported and misquoted over time, adding that the style and openness of varying Canadian and US law enforcement or news sources have led to confusion. In analyzing the data at hand, news articles regarding the severed feet give conflicting information; both with facts such as the first foot being found in a “size 12 ADIDAS shoe” (8), and some articles mentioning a “size 12 Canvas shoe only made in India”(9) to the actual count of feet ranging from 15 (1) to 21 (6, various sources).

Ten Victims Identified Eventually

Though facts are hard to come by with different reporting styles for US and Canadian news media, as well as law enforcement tactics which make researching these events very difficult; a total of ten bodies have since been identified via DNA analysis. A map listing the unidentified feet doesn’t look as staggering with the full data.

#1. August 20th, 2007, Jedediah Island, BC. “Canvas”, size 12 shoe dated 2005 (9), Linked to Depressed Man, Name Withheld (2)

#2. August 26th, 2007. Gabriola Island, BC. “Reebok”, size 12. Dated to 2004 production (9), Linked to a man Missing since 2006. Name Withheld.

#3. February 2nd, 2009. Valdes Island, BC. Blue/White Nike, size 11. Dated to 2003 (9), Linked to Missing man, name withheld, and matching to Shoe #5.

#4. May 22, 2008. Kirkland Island, Fraser River. New Balance, Size 7 (female). Pattullo Bridge Suicide. Name withheld. (DNA Match to #7.) (9, 2)

#5. June 16th, 2008. Westham Island, Fraser River. Blue/White Nike, size 11 (9), Linked to Missing man, name withheld, and matching to Shoe #3.

#7. November 11, 2008. Richmond, BC. Fraser River. New Balance, Size 7 (female) Pattullo Bridge Suicide. Name withheld. (DNA Match to #4.) (9, 2)

#8. October 27, 2009. Richmond BC. Fraser River. Size 8½ Nike running shoe (mens) (9), Linked to missing man from 2008, name withheld.

#12. November 4, 2011. Port Moody, BC. Stefan Zahorujko, Fisherman missing since 1987 (9).

#18. December 8, 2017. Vancouver Island, BC. Lower Leg and foot found. Identified as Stanley Okumoto (15, 22).

#21. January 1, 2019, Jetty Island, Everett, Washington. Antonio Neil, Missing since 2016 (21).

Map of Unidentified Feet. © 2020 Electric Consulting LLC. All Rights Reserved

Related Historical References

Throughout history similar phenomenon regarding feet washing ashore was noted due to shipwrecks; likely in that time, covered with a leather sole. In 1894, the Majella sunk off the coast of Rhode Island and a severed foot was found from one of the five crew members approximately 12 miles away (25, 26). In 1913, a woman’s foot was the only remains to wash ashore on Lake Michigan in Chicago, believed to be a murder or drowning victim (27). In 1930, another foot washed ashore in Gary, Indiana, believed to be deposited in the water by medical students; and there was note of a woman’s foot found nearby a year prior. In 1934, a man had an accident off shore near Ventura, California where his leg was amputated and thrown overboard, where it was later found ashore. In 1969, a human foot washed ashore on a beach in Florida, along with other organs on nearby beaches to the puzzlement of authorities (30). In 1996, a human foot washed ashore after being improperly confiscated and disposed of by a rogue doctor (32).

One would have to wonder about bodies inside these isolated incidents and those found after major ocean disasters, such as The Titanic, with only recovering 360 of the 1500 lost (and no feet mentioned) with 500 miles of bodies strewn about. Note there are known cases of leather being unaffected by salt water with archaeologists finding pristine sandals in ancient shipwrecks so the likelyhood of finding leather shoes, or even non-decomposed remains in a shoe, from the Titanic are very high (33). In the right conditions it is said that the ocean has been able to preserve organic matter for centuries with the tentative identification of bodies at the ship’s hull by how many shoes are still preserved there to this day and are suspected to lie at the bottom of the Titanic (33).

Shoes have been known to protect feet from the elements and scavenging marine life, and in modern times further aiding buoyancy via tennis shoe material for travel via currents. Throughout history, we have examples of human remains being preserved in shoes or leather material for decades or longer within the water, and in the case of the Salish Sea Feet, see example in foot #12. In foot 12, Stefan Zahorujko went missing in 1987 and his foot wasn’t found until 2011.

Conclusion

It is plausible to discern that many of the remaining feet left to identification are potentially from a larger range of time than we initially surmised, and that the events are connected only in the manner found with how the occurrence captivates the public psyche. More information is needed to come up with a valid thesis and due to the amount of misinformation and lore that has developed over time; the facts are few. I conclude that it is my belief that all of these event are not connected via circumstance, though puzzling that so many have been found with relative distance.

Because historical analysis is hard and often inaccurate over the course of time and urban legends (see article on Glen and Bessie Hyde), I do not feel I have enough data from official sources to give an accurate theory on what is occurring without more data. The differences in style between Canadian and US Law Enforcement are so great that it is hard to correlate any data across the 21 feet found to date. My theory would be at this time that these cases are not connected in any other way except potentially mass hysteria and media hype. With water decomposition taking a long time and limbs naturally releasing from the trunk of a body; it is possible that these cases are all unconnected laterally but connected in collective shock and the phenomenon of Apophenia.

Apophenia, which involves recognizing patterns in data that is unconnected, often seen when humans recognize their favorite number coincidentally and assume there is correlation, or through the power of suggestion (such as media frenzy). In short, those effected see patterns that may not be connected as connected, as we may see with this case.

It could very well be that shoes have been washing to shore for a very long time but had gone unnoticed. After all, it was in 1887 that Leg-In-Boot Square in Vancouver, BC earned its name via a gruesome story about a foot and leg washing to shore and hung by a pike, and after unclaimed, to finally have been fed to the dogs (24).

The Full List of Severed Feet

Apologies about the format, the format Medium uses for images is terrible.

#1 . August 20th, 2007, Jedediah Island, BC. “Canvas”, size 12 shoe dated 2005 (9).

#2. August 26th, 2007. Gabriola Island, BC. “Reebok”, size 12. Dated to 2004 production (9).

#3. February 2nd, 2009. Valdes Island, BC. Blue/White Nike, size 11. Dated to 2003 (9).

#4. June 16th, 2008. Westham Island, Fraser River. Blue/White Nike, size 11 (9).

#5. August 1st, 2008. Pysht, Washington. Men’s black size 11 shoe. (12,13)

#6. November 11, 2008. Richmond, BC. Fraser River. New Balance, Size 7 (female) (9, 2).

#7. October 27, 2009. Richmond BC. Fraser River. Size 8½ Nike running shoe (mens) (9).

#8. August 27, 2010. Whidbey Island, WA. Shoeless woman or child’s foot. (14)

#9. December 5, 2010. Tacoma, Washington. Child’s Ozark Trail shoe.

#10. August 30, 2011. False Creek, BC.

#11. November 4, 2011. Port Moody, BC.

#12. December 10, 2011. (Lake Union), Seattle, Washington

#13. January 26, 2012. Vancouver, BC

#14. May 6, 2014. Seattle, Washington. (23)

#15. February 7, 2016. Vancouver Island, BC

#16. February 12, 2016. Vancouver Island, BC

#17. December 8, 2017. Vancouver Island, BC. Lower Leg and foot found. (15)

#18. May 6, 2018. Gabriola Island, BC. Hiking boot found in a Logjam. (16)

#19. September, 2018, West Vancouver BC.

#19. January 1, 2019, Jetty Island, Everett, Washington.

#20. September, 2018, West Vancouver BC.

#21. January 1, 2019, Jetty Island, Everett, Washington.

R eference/Resource/Bibliography

Because my references and resources are about 100 sources and very long, often times, this tanks my stats. I’ve opted to record them on a different page as to not ax my required reading time. You can find them recorded accurately here.
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['History', 'Mystery', 'True Crime', 'Missing Persons', 'Crime']