One of the five feet that have mysteriously washed up on the shores of British Columbia over the past year has been linked to a depressed man who went missing a year ago, police said on Saturday.
Police sergeant Pierre Lemaitre said DNA testing helped to identify the man. The man’s name is not being made public at the family’s request, Lemaitre said.
“We’re being very sensitive to the family’s demands,” he said, adding more information would be released today. “They wanted the time to reach out to their immediate family and share the news among themselves.”
A team of investigators has been working on the bizarre case since the first foot washed up last August on Jedidiah Island in the Strait of Georgia.
Two weeks ago, police said a foot that was found on Valdez Island in Feb. 8 and another foot found June 16 on Westham Island, more than 40km away and across the strait, belong to the same man.
Last Aug. 26, a right foot was found inside a man’s size 12 Reebok sneaker on Gabriola Island, in the strait.
And another foot laced inside a New Balance runner, and the only one belonging to a woman, was found May 22 on Kirkland Island in the Fraser River.
A sixth discovery last month turned out to be a hoax, with an animal paw stuffed inside a shoe.
Lemaitre did not comment on reports that a US coroner in Washington State’s San Juan Islands had found a footless body just five months before the first foot washed ashore in British Columbia, except to say that Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigators are looking into the reports.
San Juan Islands coroner Randy Gaylord said he was never contacted by Canadian authorities about a possible connection.
Police said they are reviewing almost 300 missing persons files and haven’t yet been able to match any other DNA from the feet to any missing people.
British Columbia coroner Jeff Dolan has said there was no evidence the feet were severed.
Pathologist Dr. John Butt said feet could simply be separated from the body by the forces of the ocean current as the bodies decomposed and the shoe, along with the foot, would float to the surface.
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