On 20th August 2007, a 12-year-old girl was walking along Jedediah Island near Vancouver when she spotted a blue-and-white running shoe on the beach the beach A men’s size 12. Inside the shoe was a decaying human foot…
Less than a week later, on 26th August 2007, another foot appeared on nearby Gabriola Island. Both were right feet. Both wore different shoes. They didn’t belong to the same person. And the discoveries didn’t stop.
Since that first grim find, at least 21 detached human feet washed ashore along the coasts of the Salish Sea between British Columbia and Washington State. The phenomenon triggered worldwide speculation ranging from serial killers to organised crime to alien intervention.
On 8th February 2008, a size 11 Nike shoe containing a foot washed up on Valdes Island. Two weeks later, on 22nd February, a New Balance trainer appeared on Kirkland Island.
By the end of 2008, six feet had been found in less than 18 months.
“Finding one foot is like a million to one odds, but to find two is crazy,” said RCMP spokesman Garry Cox at the time.
The theories got bizarre fast…
The Conspiracy Theories Flooded In
Laura Yazedjian, a forensic anthropologist with the British Columbia Coroners Service, fielded some memorable tips.
“We get some very interesting tips that come in about serial killers, or containers full of migrants that are sitting at the bottom of the ocean. Aliens – had that one as well,” she says. “And occasionally a psychic.”
Pranksters then joined the chaos too. They stuffed shoes with chicken bones and skeletonised dog paws, scattering them along Canadian shorelines to feed the frenzy.
But the actual explanation was stranger than any of the fictions and turned our to be rooted entirely in science…
They Weren’t “Severed” At All
The first thing investigators had to correct was the language.
The feet weren’t severed. Severed means someone cut them off. The B.C. Coroners Service never found cut marks on any of the bones. What they found instead was evidence of natural decomposition.
Gail Anderson, a forensic expert at Simon Fraser University, explained the grim mechanics. Crustaceans and other marine scavengers feast on ankles first because the skin and bones are softer there. “These scavengers are lazy feeders, they prefer to tackle the softer parts of our body than the tough grisly bits. Some of the softest parts of us are the soft tissues and ligaments around our ankles.”
Bodies decompose in water. Ankles detach naturally. The feet separate from the rest of the remains. But why do the feet wash ashore when the rest of the body doesn’t?
Modern Trainers Changed Everything
The answer lies in footwear design. Trainers manufactured in the last decade or so are built with gas-filled pockets in the soles. The foams used became noticeably lighter, with more air mixed in.
And they float…
Feet wearing modern trainers act like buoys. The shoe protects the bones whilst providing flotation. The foot stays intact whilst the rest of the body sinks or disintegrates. “Notice there are no feet washing ashore in stiletto heels or flip-flops,” Anderson points out.
The Salish Sea itself plays a role too…
The Perfect Trap
The Salish Sea is an unusually large and complex body of inland water. The currents act as a trap and the unique geography of the land and water creates a concentration effect.
This phenomenon isn’t new either. Feet have been washing up in the area since 1887. One incident back in 1914 involved an entire leg!
What changed was the frequency and that’s directly linked to the buoyancy of modern footwear.
The Count: At Least 21 Feet Since 2007
Between August 2007 and July 2023, at least 21 detached human feet washed ashore. Fifteen appeared on the Canadian side, six on the American side.
The discoveries weren’t constant. After the initial cluster in 2007-2008, the finds became sporadic, sometimes just one or two per year, occasionally none at all.
In 2009 and 2010, feet appeared near Richmond, British Columbia and on Whidbey Island and Tacoma, Washington. In 2011, three more feet were discovered, including a size 12 hiking boot found in Sasamat Lake and another hiking boot in Tacoma in December.
The latest shoe was found in July 2023…
Almost every foot was encased in a trainer. One case in December 2011 involved a leg and bone found in a black plastic bag in Seattle, the only instance suggesting possible foul play in presentation, though not in death.
Several turned out to be matched pairs belonging to the same person. In 2008, investigators confirmed two of the feet belonged to one individual. The rest came from different people.
The Identifications: Who They Were
DNA analysis cracked many of the cases. As of September 2018, 13 of the 15 feet found in British Columbia had been identified. One foot belonged to a fisherman who’d been missing since 1987.
In the U.S., one pair belonged to a woman who jumped from a bridge. Another foot belonged to a missing fisherman and a third to a depressed man who likely committed suicide—his identity withheld at his family’s request.
Not all were identified. As of November 2025, approximately 6 of the 21 feet discovered remain unidentified. A pair of adult male feet found in February 2016 on Botanical Beach near Port Renfrew, in size 12 blue-and-black New Balance trainers, produced no DNA matches to known missing persons.
In December 2017, the British Columbia Coroners Service confirmed that foul play had been ruled out in all previous cases. The deaths were accidents or suicides. The mystery wasn’t a crime. It was biology, physics and footwear design converging in one specific body of water.
The Research That Cracked It
In the summer of 2007, right when the first feet appeared, Gail Anderson was conducting a study for the Canadian Police Research Centre.
She wanted to understand how quickly a homicide victim would decompose in the ocean. Ethics rules prevented using a human body, so she used a dead pigs instead. Pigs are commonly used in forensic research as stand-ins for human decomposition.
The timing was coincidental but crucial. Her research provided the framework to understand what was happening with the human feet.
What looked like a serial killer’s signature turned out to be a collision of natural processes and modern manufacturing. Reality delivered the strangeness all on its own. The feet still wash ashore occasionally to this day…
