Gangster hits or serial killer? The mystery of 24 severed feet that washed up on a paradise island… and the strange truth behind it
With its crystal clear waters, stunning sandstone coves and lush green forests, Gabriola Island, in British Columbia, Canada, often leaves visitors feeling like they’ve found paradise.
But the island’s peace is shattered by a series of horrific discoveries when severed feet begin washing up on shore – sparking speculation that violent gangs, a mass murderer, or even alien abductions are to blame.
10
In August 2007, Michelle Geresse and her husband, George Bowe, were on a weekend visit from their home in Vancouver, enjoying the beauty of the island, when things took a horrific turn.
“We decided to take this beautiful little road that passed between some houses when out of the corner of my eye I saw a shoe near a tree trunk,” she recalls.
“From the way he was sitting, he looked heavy.”
“It was a big shoe, about a size 11, I think. Men’s shoes,” George adds.
“You could tell there was something inside because it was kind of a greasy white color.”
After finding a stick to poke with, George and Michelle had no doubt that it was a human foot.
“Maybe we should go to that house over there and ask those people,” Michelle said. I said: No, we will not talk to anyone in the neighboring houses because he might be involved. We called 911.”
Oddly enough, this was not the first such call police have received this week. Six days ago, another foot was found, more than 30 miles away, on Jadidiya Island by a 12-year-old girl from Washington who was riding a boat with her family.
While the men’s feet were, they were not identical. They were both right feet from different bodies.
“It caught the attention of the authorities and the media,” says BBC journalist Celia Hutton, who is originally from Canada.
In her podcast, Footprints, the reporter travels to Vancouver to hear how more than 20 more feet have been found in the area since then, and to talk to investigators and scientists who have worked to unravel the mystery of why they started appearing.
A third foot was found on Valdés Island on February 8, 2008. Again, it was that of a male, and again a right foot.
The fourth, found on Kirkland Island, was a minor aberration. Although it was another right foot, this time it was a woman’s.
Fascination was mounting around the world as more and more human feet washed ashore in the area, all wearing running shoes.
Speculation and theories have run wild, from the rational to the bizarre. Among them were that he was a form of gangster revenge, a serial killer with a foot fetish, and even the work of an extraterrestrial life form.
Chris Brown, a journalist for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, was one of the first journalists to cover the story on the ground.
“Vancouver is a beautiful city with amazing mountains and ocean, and people go there to ski and do other outdoor adventures, but it also has a dark side,” he explains.
“There is a terrible drug trade, there are criminal gangs, there have been mass murders. So, that’s what sparked speculation about the involvement of foot gangsters. Were they some of the people who were kidnapped and thrown into the water?
10
10
10
Naming the victims
However, they continued to wash ashore, with the number reaching 24 in Washington state in the United States.
But all of this can be mapped onto a specific area stretching from Vancouver Island almost all the way to Seattle, known as the Salish Sea.
Determining who owned the feet will be key to solving the horrific mystery.
Laura Yazdjian, an identification specialist with the British Columbia Forensic Service, is responsible for all cold cases in the province involving unidentified remains.
“There’s actually a lot of information you can get from the shoe itself,” she says.
“On the tongue of the shoe there is always a date of manufacture, which means the person could not have disappeared before that time. We have a DNA database that contains reference profiles of family members of over 1,100 historically missing persons in British Columbia.”
As the feet began to slowly match, an interesting aspect was noticed that added to the puzzle.
Bone scans showed that neither foot was mechanically separated from the body, meaning it had not been severed. So how did they break up? Things were getting weird.
There is a terrible drug trade, there are criminal gangs, there have been mass murders. So, this is what sparked speculation about the involvement of foot gangsters
Journalist Chris Brown
Celia visits Simon Fraser University in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby to meet Dr. Jill Anderson, a professor in the university’s School of Criminology, whose work has shed light on the mystery.
Gale is one of the world’s leading forensic entomologists. She studies insects found on or around bodies and has been called in by the British Columbia Forensic Service to assist in the case.
“I was asked to come in and look at all the feet and collect as many insects as I could and then try to estimate the time since death,” she says.
“That’s what I do, but in all cases I couldn’t tell them much. They were in water, so there was no insect colonization, and they were remarkably well preserved because when any form of tissue is in a low-oxygen environment, fat from the body can It seeps out and turns into a white, waxy, paste-like substance that stays wet.”
10
10
10
The pigs hold the key
The revelation came in the form of unexpected pigs.
Gale conducted a number of experiments looking at what happens to bodies when left in water which included pinning the carcasses of dead pigs in water near Vancouver.
“Pigs are the closest thing to humans. They’re relatively hairless, so we’ve used their skin in some human skin grafts, and there are more and more organ transplants being used from pigs.”
The experiments involved using underwater cameras to photograph pig samples.
“We were all shocked at how quickly we were able to get a complete skeleton,” says Gale.
“I mean, we knew that a body could decompose a lot faster than people think, but I don’t think any of us were prepared for how quickly a body could be swallowed whole and gone within three days.”
Gale found that a range of deep-sea predators, such as shrimp, crabs and lobsters, were feeding on the pigs’ bodies, causing them to decompose faster than anyone had previously thought.
“Around the ankle area is all the bones and joints and that’s where the tendons break off and get eaten away. Once that’s done, the foot will fall off. It’s normal for the whole foot to break off as well, but when it’s surrounded by a synthetic running shoe, it’ll stay there.”
10
10
But why was it washed into the sea then along the western Pacific coast, in Canada in the first place?
Kurt Ebsemeyer, a Seattle oceanographer who has studied the waters in the area since 1966, was able to take another step in explaining this.
“Canada doesn’t have dams on rivers like the United States does,” he says. “So, if someone gets lost in the water, they could be swept out into larger bodies of water, whereas in the United States, they would probably be swept into a dam and the police would come down and take their remains.”
This left the final question in mystery: Why have feet been washed ashore only in the past few years?
“The drive to make lighter shoes started in 1972, and it has grown exponentially,” says Elizabeth Semmelhack, director and chief curator of the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto.
“If you’re using materials that can’t be submerged in water, you’ll have something that can float,” adds Laura Yazdjian.
“Plus, because it’s plastic, it keeps the foot inside. So, once the foot is separated from the ankle, it becomes a very buoyant container. And given the trend in the athletic shoe industry toward making lighter shoes, we’re seeing them float to the surface and be pushed into these Beaches.
The work Laura did to identify the feet was painstaking but it yielded results. “All the feet have been identified at this time,” she says.
“Once these details were clarified, the story changed and the focus became on the people who died,” Celia says. “We realize that almost all of them were drowning victims or chose to commit suicide.”
Footprints is available now on BBC Sounds
