16th severed foot washes up on Pacific Northwest shores

Another severed foot was found last week washed up in Vancouver Island, Canada. It was the 16^th severed limb that turned up on the Pacific Northwest shores since 2007.

A family walking along Botanical Beach on Vancouver island found the foot on Feb 7, reports CBC. According to Charlotte Stephens, her husband saw the shoe and did not find anything unusual about it until they noticed what looks like a bone inside the footwear. It was the 13^th foot washed up in British Columbia.

The phenomena has puzzled experts because of the similarities in the severed limb mostly being a right foot and still wearing athletic shoes or hiking boots. But beyond those common traits, authorities have difficulty establishing the identity of the owner.

The areas where the foot washed up were in British Columbia in Canada and Washington state in the US, reports Time. The difficulty in discovering who owns the foot has led to speculations that it could belong to victims of natural disaster or victims of serial killers, drug dealers or human traffickers.

But it is difficult to establish the manner the owners of the limb possibly died because it is the hands and feet that often fall off when the body is caught in the water for a long period of time, according to scientists. Nevertheless, police are still attempting to find an owner by using the model and make of the shoe and matching it with missing persons.

USA Today reports that the shoe was sold in North America in March 2013. Authorities theorise that the person died between 2013 and December 2015. The coroner’s office, in a statement, says, “Preliminary investigation suggests that the foot disarticulated naturally from the rest of the body, a result of prolonged immersion in water.”