Spooky Scary Skeleton, His Feet were on the Beach

Since August of 2007, twenty detached human feet (mostly in shoes) have been found on the beach of the Salish Sea in British Columbia. Feet have also been found in the United States cities of Tacoma and Seattle. As jarring as it appears, this is not the work of a demented 2000's serial killer. No, these feet are those of missing persons who disappeared for varying reasons ranging from presumed run-away to adrenaline junkies on a daring vacation.

What is more interesting is that in addition to making authorities realize they need to include shoe sizes on missing persons inquiries, it also provided a valuable lesson in the rate of decay that happens to the human body in the ocean. All of the feet found were difficult to get viable DNA samples due to the accelerated deterioration caused by salt water. Salt imbalance when human skin is placed in salt water causes the cells to expel water in order to come to equilibrium with the salt water. As the tissue is penetrated by the salt water over time this keeps happening until the deeper layers of skin, the tendons, and even the bone.

You may also be wondering why feet and no other body part? Well, decomposition is an interesting process for the human body. The foot probably separates from the rest of the body because the ankle is relatively weak, and any air trapped within the shoe will create some buoyancy that allows the shoe (with the foot in it) to float away from the body. The head, hands, and feet all have weaker attachment points and can detach when a body is decomposing in water but are not likely to float without something else attached.

The odds of finding a detached foot is roughly one in one million, so it is rather odd that feet keep washing up around the same area. It's never fun when something that should be considered once in a lifetime happens over and over again.

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