What in the world?

[Tiz]

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) – Authorities are seeking more information about a small human foot that washed ashore in Washington state.
Tacoma police spokesman Mark Fulghum (FULL-jum) said Tuesday the right foot was still inside a boy’s size 6 “OzArk Trail” hiking boot, and likely belonged to a juvenile or small adult. He says the boots were sold in Walmart stores from 2004 to 2005.
The foot found early last week is believed to have floated in from either the Puyallup River or Puget Sound. It’s the second to wash ashore in Washington state in four months.
In late August, a right foot believed to be that of a woman or child washed up on a beach in Whidbey Island, about 70 miles north of Tacoma.
Fulghum says police don’t yet know if the cases are linked, or if they have any connection to cases in British Columbia, where seven feet have washed ashore in the past four years.

[WashingtonBay]

Yeah - always feet. First ones to turn up that far inside the sound though. The Whidbey one, I figured still could have come in from the ocean like the others.

Not sure if or why that makes it better.

[Equine_Woman]

Wow. How sad.

[vicklynn]

Another serial killer in Wa? Gesh.

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

What's bizarre is that this makes the ~tenth~ lone foot to wash up on the shore in WA and BC in the last few years. Ten! And always just feet. Nothing else.

It seems at first that there must be something going on... that there must be some connection between all of these. But it's starting to look like they really ~aren't~ connected. Apparently there's been some work done on this. There may actually be a perfectly reasonable explanation to all this.

Some of them have actually been identified. One was a missing person, a depressed man that is figured to have committed suicide. Another was a woman reported missing-- in fact two of the ten feet, found months and miles apart, turned out to belong to this same woman.

Clue: All of the feet have been in shoes.

Well... shoes would protect the feet from (sorry if you're eating dinner) scavengers. I had the opportunity to learn about some of this back in my CG days. Lovely seminars, indeed... :) Eventually a body in the water will suffer not just from scavengers but the effects of long immersion... tissues get... uh... how to say it... gelatinous. The parts eventually get disarticulated (fall apart at the joints). An intentionally sunk body that's wrapped up and weighted down will tend to stay together... except for the feet. They always seem to leave the feet, and they leave the shoes on. The feet will inevitably become disarticulated, and the shoes will tend to protect the feet.

And... (drumroll please...) shoes float. They drift away and end up on a beach somewhere.

So... whether intentionally sunk, or the result of an accident... bodies don't survive well in water, especially a marine environment. But feet do.

So... it's looking like it (probably) isn't some kind of satanic foot-cutting cult having parties on beaches.

[Rie]

I watched a whole discovery channel thing on this not too long ago, the "experts" say most likely the feet are from sunken boats, drowned people or accidents at sea. Murder is the least likely explanation so far.

[natisha]

But it's starting to look like they really ~aren't~ connected.

Sorry but I found that funny...and true

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

But it's starting to look like they really ~aren't~ connected.

Sorry but I found that funny...and true

[snicker]

Today in Miss Johnson's first grade class our word for the day is "disarticulated". Can you say "disarticulated"? I thought you could....

:)

[natisha]

[snicker]

Today in Miss Johnson's first grade class our word for the day is "disarticulated". Can you say "disarticulated"? I thought you could....

:)And the children stared in stunned silence at the visual aid.

[Tiz]

While it makes me want to throw up, I do appreciate your explanation, RD.:eek:

[Suzi]

I remember hearing abt that on TV awhile back and they had the same basic explaination. It is bizarre though.

Maybe its those pesky aliens again.;)

[offgridgirl]

Nope hadn't heard about it but the explanation is plausible and even probable. We get lots of seaweed and logs here.....some dead sea lions or birds, but no human body parts so far....sad thought:(

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

My place in Gig Harbor in is an area of Hale's passage that has a natural eddy in the tidal currents that flow back and forth all day. The beach for a couple hundred yards up and down in both directions... is a natural collecting place for all sorts of flotsam and jetsam. Things just "appear" on the beach there. Then... just an mysteriously... away they go. I just know that some day I'll go down for a walk on the beach and find a body (or maybe just a foot :)).

The wierdest one was a one day at a fairly low tide I went out for a walk on the beach and there was a V-8 smallblock engine block sitting on the beach. Now, really... how does an engine block just "wash up" on the beach? How? I'm pretty sure it didn't float there. But... true to form... a week or so later... it was gone. Equally as mysterious. Lord knows where it is now.

I find the darnedest things on that beach. Sadly... not any of those cool Japanese glass float balls they used to find all the time. I guess they're not using those in Japan anymore.