And here are some things you should never mention when trying to sell a beach house: tsunamis, permanent salt wind damage, the chance — however small — that sharks will tear your leg off, and that this beach is notorious for soaking feet. which are constantly washed ashore.
In 2007, a girl was walking on the beach in British Columbia when she found a sneaker. To her horror, when she opened the stocking, she found that inside was a human foot. Since then, a number of severed legs have washed ashore. The steps are associated with five males, one female and three of unknown gender. Over the years, as steps have appeared here and there, many theories have been resurrected as to who the steps belonged to.
In 2008, Vancouver police were able to identify a foot by comparing its DNA to that of a man described as suicidal. They were later able to identify two other steps with a woman who was also believed to have killed herself. Because of these discoveries, many have assumed that the steps belong to those who jumped from the bridge and died. However, due to the rarity of only having feet and no other body parts found, some believe they are linked to a plane crash off a nearby island.
Others speculate that they are the victims of the 2004 Asian Tsunami, as all the shoes were made before 2004. Whatever the source of these feet came from, they have puzzled the world for years.
BC feet mystery:At least 8 severed feet wash up the shore.What’s weird? They’re all right feet wearing running shoes pic.twitter.com/xmkB9J5VdF
— Horrific Posts (@Creepypic) September 23, 2013
From 2007 to 2011, eleven feet were washed up on one particular stretch of coastline in North America. Most of them still have their shoes on and none of them have bodies attached to them or found anywhere nearby.
The first step appears on Jedediah Island, a terrifying discovery made by a tourist from Washington. The woman picked up a shoe on the beach and saw a sock in it. She opened the sock, expecting to find a crab or a lump of sand, but instead found a man’s foot.
The foot was found in a shoe that was distributed mainly in India in 2003. At the time, it was not much talked about except in the local press. Human remains often wash up on seashores. When another foot, also belonging to a man but apparently a different person, was found on a nearby island six days later, the press began to take notice.
Why do human feet keep washing ashore in British Columbia? https://t.co/7rAhs1IbBM
— The Guardian (@guardian) May 9, 2018
Since then, these cases have been repeated regularly. Especially during the summer months. Most often this happened in August, although there were also discoveries in November, December and February. While this may be due to the tides, it is also possible that people tend to be at the beach the most during the summer.
Most of the steps are single, but four of the steps have been shown to belong to two individuals, bringing the total number of remains found to nine individuals to five. Three of those people have been identified, and their deaths were attributed to “natural causes.” Some of the known victims were local residents and are believed to have committed suicide. While this explains a few of the victims, the others have angered local authorities.
The main stumbling block to identification is the effect of the environment on body tissues. Many people think that bodies rot. What happens in the ocean, especially in oxygen-poor environments, is the accumulation of adipocere. Adipocer is a waxy substance often found in soap. It accumulates in bodies that are exposed to bacteria but not to air. Anaerobic bacteria process fat tissue and create adipocere.
This distorts the characteristics of the foot. Authorities were able to identify the three known victims through DNA, but for the others, they could only guess at gender and age by looking at foot size and shoe type. Since both women and younger men commonly wear men’s running shoes, most feet, unless they have nail polish, are classified as “youthful or feminine.”
It is also difficult to establish where and when the steps came from. Many different currents fall along the coast of Washington and British Columbia. Because of the cold ocean, the fact that the legs have accumulated varying amounts of adipocere, the leg could have come from a body almost anywhere or at any depth in the Pacific Ocean, and could have been in the water for years or even decades before showing up on the beach.
🚨 Human Feet Keep Washing Up On Shore Of British Columbia And Washington And Nobody Knows Why! #MissingPerson#MurderCase#BluestarZone
https://t.co/zXXUHxOcZ6 pic.twitter.com/7MrKkUlmLF
— 🇬🇷 Bluestar 🇰🇷 (@BlueSea1964) May 15, 2018
Questions and theories
The last foot of an indeterminate gender in a men’s size 9 sneaker washed up on the beach on August 31, 2011. Authorities again announced that they would not treat the find as a homicide or any type of unnatural death. At first glance, this seems strange. Disembodied legs that repeatedly surface on a piece of the coast cannot be natural. Even if coastal currents do pick up a lot of debris – why legs?
Although the mystery has to do with the legs, there are many body parts that wash ashore around the world. However, the steps are one of the most innocent parts. When a body spends a long time in water, it breaks down at certain weak points. The ankles and wrists are the weakest of these points. While the hands are usually not attached to anything, the feet are in shoes. The shoes may have floating rubber holes or hold pockets of air that lift the foot up, allowing it to float ashore.
This leads to the question of why steps did not begin to appear until the turn of the century. An early theory put forward by some people before the two victims were identified was that they were the remains of people who died in the 2004 tsunami. At the time, none of the shoes were identified as a model made after 2004. The fact , that three of the nine shoes were identified as belonging to local people and not tsunami victims, puts an end to this theory.
Other people suggest that the reason may be the growing volume of athletic shoes. As the sneakers get bigger and fluffier, they become more buoyant and more debris floats long enough to reach the beach. However, in the late 1990s, there were very heavy sneakers, and not so many feet were found then.
Ultimately, it is not clear how many of the cases are staged and how many are real. In recent years, not many such discoveries have been registered, which may confirm some of the first theories.
Author: Denitsa Kostova
Source: Gizmodo, Police1
2023-08-25 12:04:40
#Severed #limbs #questions #floating #legs #mystery
