Severed feet mystery: dismembered feet attached to shoes keep washing up on Pacific Northwest shores

A severed foot still attached to a shoe was discovered on Vancouver Island last week, the latest in a string of mysterious detached feet found on beaches in British Columbia, Washington State and Canada since 2007.

According to a report by CBC News, a British Columbia family had found the disarticulated foot while walking along the Botanical Beach.

"[My husband] picked it up and brought it out on to the beach, and we had a look at it for about five minutes and we thought, it almost looks like there is an actual foot bone in it," Charlotte Stephens said.

They reported their finding to the B.C. Coroners Service, who confirmed the shoe did contain a dismembered foot. Although coroners could not pinpoint exactly how long the foot had been in the water, they did note that the shoe model was only released after March 2013.

The B.C discovery is the 16th case of severed feet washing up on Pacific Northwest shorelines over the last eight years, with the 15 other feet found in mostly similar circumstances. The Washington Post reports that most of the discoveries have been of right feet, and all of them were found wearing running shoes or hiking boots, including three New Balances, two Nikes and an Ozark Trail.

The first two of such findings - both right feet - were discovered just six days apart, and followed by five similar discoveries the following year. Speculations about the mysterious detached feet range from the 2004 tsunami and its victims, to the work of serial killers and human traffickers.

Meanwhile, authorities do not suspect any foul play, and most past findings have been ruled suicides. The Post notes that in B.C, two feet were identified as having belonged to people with mental illness, while three others were linked to individuals who probably died of natural causes.

Researchers had previously found that when a body is floating in water, the hands and feet are the first to become detached.

One forensics consultant, however, isn't convinced. Mark Medelson told the Daily Beast in 2011 that there were too many coincidences with the detached feet.

“Until you can show me something pathologically concrete that this is a natural separation of that foot from a body, then I’m saying you’ve got to think dirty.”