They found a left foot!

Posted on June 17, 2008 by Cath@VWXYNot?

The police are said to be hopping mad.
But at least we can rule out an orca with a one-sided foot fetish as the suspect.

About Cath@VWXYNot?

"one of the sillier science bloggers [...] I thought I should give a warning to the more staid members of the community." - Bob O'Hara, December 2010
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13 Responses to They found a left foot!

  1. Bob O'Hara says:
    June 18, 2008 at 5:21 am

    Or perhaps it’s been joined by another orca, with a fetish for the other foot.

  2. Jennifer Rohn says:
    June 18, 2008 at 6:34 am

    I love the reader comment that’s coming up on the side of the latest news article right now:
    “Come on, there is something weird and unnatural going on here.”
    Haven’t you Canadians ever heard of serial killers?

  3. Bob O'Hara says:
    June 18, 2008 at 9:26 am

    Steve Bell has found a right foot:

    No Orca involved.

  4. Katherine Haxton says:
    June 18, 2008 at 11:20 am

    In the CBC article, I was interested to read that “Forensic experts say it is not unusual for body parts to become separated after they have been in the water for a long time.”
    I’d like to know where the other body parts are.

  5. Katherine Haxton says:
    June 18, 2008 at 11:21 am

    And I managed to do italics…
    Do you think they only find the feet because they are protected by a shoe which must be more substantial and water resistant than clothes? As in the rest is nibbled by orcas who then spit out the shoe clad feet?

  6. Cath Ennis says:
    June 18, 2008 at 2:30 pm

    Bob: it’s nice for couples to share hobbies.
    Jen: yes, don’t worry, a serial killer is one of the many theories doing the rounds, along with gang activity, tsunami victims, plane crash victims (although the genders don’t match the most likely known crash), boating accidents (although only 2 people were reported missing after a ferry sank 2 years ago), bridge jumpers etc. There are lots of missing people around the province, but none of the feet have shown a genetic match yet.
    Katy, that’s what the police are saying – bodies separate in the water, and running shoes not only protect the feet from fish, they also float. So the suspicion is that the other body parts are out there, either eaten or at the bottom of the ocean.

  7. Cath Ennis says:
    June 18, 2008 at 7:31 pm

    Foot #6 (right foot #5) may just have shown up.
    I wonder if there’s any reporting bias going on here. Maybe feet wash up on beaches all the time, but people usually ignore what appears to be just a running shoe, one more piece of flotsam, until a media story prompts them to investigate more closely.

  8. Cath Ennis says:
    June 18, 2008 at 7:31 pm

    Oops forgot the link.

  9. Maxine Clarke says:
    June 18, 2008 at 8:15 pm

    One thing I rapidly learnt after starting blogging many aeons about 3 years ago, is that Canadians are very nice people indeed.

  10. Cath Ennis says:
    June 18, 2008 at 9:28 pm

    For the most part, yes, they are. A bit reserved maybe (yes, way more so than the Brits), but mostly very nice and polite. With the odd exception of course. (There you go Jenny – a bona fide BC serial killer).

  11. Brian Clegg says:
    June 19, 2008 at 12:30 pm

    Cath – you’ve obviously encouraged interest in the subject far and wide. There’s a feature that uses the BC feet as an opener in this week’s New Scientist

  12. Cath Ennis says:
    June 19, 2008 at 5:39 pm

    And I just saw something on the BBC too. Maybe this added attention will help the police solve the mystery!

  13. Cath Ennis says:
    June 19, 2008 at 9:18 pm

    Foot #6 is a hoax.
    Still, though.

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