Officials seek help identifying 15th human foot that has washed ashore since 2007

Authorities in Canada are seeking information regarding a human foot that reportedly washed ashore in September–making it the 15th foot that has been discovered along the region’s shoreline since 2007.

This week, the British Columbia Coroners Service asked for help identifying a human foot that washed ashore in West Vancouver in early September. DNA testing hasn’t resulted in a match, but officials said DNA analysis confirmed the left foot belonged to a male.

“The decedent was wearing a light grey Nike Free RN shoe with a black Nike swoosh logo and white base, white laces, and a blue sock. The shoe was a men’s U.S. size 9.5 with an OrthoLite insert. The shoe was manufactured between Feb. 1 and April 17, 2017, and appeared to be in relatively new condition,” the release stated.

Officials said an analysis of the foot’s bone structure also determined that the person is younger than 50. They noted that the foot recovered in September is the 15th to have washed up on British Columbia shorelines since August 2007. Of those 15 feet, 10 have been identified as belonging to missing persons while five remain unidentified.

Coroners Service spokesperson Andy Watson told CBC News that the feet haven’t been tied to “any sort of suspicious circumstance,” noting that feet are often found as they easily disjoin from bodies in water and float due to the foam in shoes. He also said active tide systems means the foot’s location likely has little to do with where the person vanished.

“Typically, our process would be that we would work with any of the available information that we would find at a scene to help determine the identity, but, in this case, we’ve exhausted those options,”  Waston said.

“So, now we’re turning to the public, in hopes that we can get some information to help create a match and determine the identification.”

[Image: British Columbia Coroners Service]
[Featured Image: British Columbia Coroners Service]