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Cold Feet

A bizarre mystery baffles British Columbia.

By Winston Ross | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Jun 24, 2008 | Updated: 4:53  p.m. ET Jun 24, 2008

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  • Posted By: dfd88dfd @ 06/25/2008 4:50:02 AM

    I know this is a stretch, but, is there anyway, with currents and all, that one could be Natalie Halloway's???

    • Posted By: steelerslover @ 06/25/2008 2:39:14 PM

      The only problem with that would be that her foot would have to travel through the Panama Canal--Aruba is on the other side of the US., this is on the west side, Aruba is below Cuba, right above Venezuela.

  • Posted By: portlandtrout @ 06/24/2008 10:48:07 PM

    jdinperthwa, that's idiotic. I assume you are having a laugh with other readers, but in case you truly believe that currents carry left shoes to different places than right shoes 100% of the time, please provide a source for these "reports".

    • Posted By: jdinperthwa @ 06/25/2008 1:03:29 PM

      portlandtrout, my intention was not to make a joke but offer a premise for consideration based on an article I read several years ago about a phenomenon that was noticed that thongs (flip-flops) that were washed up on some beaches were all right footed while on other beaches they were all left footed. It wasn't something I made up but read, though I don't have a reference at hand. I will try to find one, but maybe someone else out there knows of such a report or research. Take two boats that are the same but fix the rudder on one to the left and to the right on the other. Put them in the water at the same starting point. Would it be idiotic to suggest that these two boats could end up in very different places? Now put another boat of the same style in the water at the same starting point with its rudder fixed to the right. Which bet would you place? That the boat will end up closest to where the left rudder boat ended up or to where the right rudder boat ended up? (And, regarding another's comment, this isn't about duck decoys on a still pond but a boat with a rudder fixed to one side subjected to ocean currents.) The fact that five right shoes have turned up and no left shoes appears evidence enough to give the premise some consideration. (And the left footed shoes, if they floated free in the same manner, could therefore end up in a very different location than the right footed shoes, regardless of whether they originated in the Puget Sound area or not.) The above again is a premise for consideration. Why can't the shoes have come down the Inside Passage or the Strait of Juan de Fuca? And, if so, why couldn't they have come then from the ocean into these passages? I'm not suggesting they did, but it's not outside the realm of possibility. Don't things from the Pacific Ocean find their way into Puget Sound? (I don't know, I'm asking.) And, if so, why couldn't they have crossed the ocean in the first place. In any event, if the five unlucky souls suffered an accident leading to their deaths at the same time and place, it's not all that unlikely that the right foot of each person, each floating within a shoe, each made similar journeys. Who knows, there might have been many more than five people altogether but this sample of five have happened to have made similar journeys. It'll be interesting to hear what the DNA testing turns up, though if the findings show that not all five people were born in the same place, it doesn't mean they weren't in the same place at the time of the accident, whether boat, plane or tsunami, which could have been one that hit Japan or elsewhere in the Pacific. Though, as others indicate by their disbelief, the most likely scene of an accident would seem to be in the Puget Sound area. But that doesn???t mean ruling out other locations as the possible starting point.

  • Posted By: caroldale @ 06/24/2008 7:17:51 PM

    Given that limbs have arrived in Great Britain from Australia why are the detectives presuming the feet are Canadian or American? Could they possibly be recent tsunami victims? Just a thought!

    • Posted By: jantjedijkstra @ 06/24/2008 11:24:29 PM

      British Columbia is a province of Canada...where do you get Great Britain and Australia from this article?

      • Posted By: aliciainsd @ 06/25/2008 12:53:57 PM

        The great britan part was from body parts from a plane crash in australia making it all the way to great britan. It's a little wierd that they are all coming so close together, I think that it is a mortician or someone like that, Maybe they cut the leg higher up , then fasten the leg to a dock or something so that part of the foot will eventually come off by itself and it wont look like the foot was severed by a tool. Gross, or maybe it really is just people have drowned and it is a concidence.

  • Posted By: conwell2549 @ 06/25/2008 8:39:25 AM

    I would check to see if the foot size matches the shoe size. That would give a clue if its a prank or not.

  • Posted By: mike1964 @ 06/25/2008 7:23:23 AM

    Yeah-body parts floating up on shorelines. That sure is hilarious. The last time I heard of something so funny I laughed so hard I fell off my dinosaur.

  • Posted By: PhilMcCrackin @ 06/25/2008 1:25:16 AM

    One can tell that ngy460 is no idiot and is really getting a good laugh about this. What someone oughta do is wrap a doughnut in a tennis shoe and toss it out to see. The authorities are SURE to find that a crime worth investigating.

  • Posted By: PhilMcCrackin @ 06/25/2008 1:23:33 AM

    Too funny. Can tell ngy460 is no idiot and is getting a HUGE laugh from this. I think someone oughta put a doughnut in a tennis shoe and toss it out to sea. The police are SURE to consider THAT a crime.

  • Posted By: keithfromcanada @ 06/24/2008 10:57:41 PM

    One limb crossing the ocean though a little remote is not impossible 5 feet crossing the pacific ocean and all coming down throught the straight and ending up in the same small area is a little far-fetched and the straights and water ways around the alaskan panhandle and BC coast are littered with shipwrecks, a few small planes and missing kayakers.

  • Posted By: keithfromcanada @ 06/24/2008 10:57:27 PM

    One limb crossing the ocean though a little remote is not impossible 5 feet crossing the pacific ocean and all coming down throught the straight and ending up in the same small area is a little far-fetched and the straights and water ways around the alaskan panhandle and BC coast are littered with shipwrecks, a few small planes and missing kayakers.

  • Posted By: jdinperthwa @ 06/24/2008 9:30:18 PM

    Reports in the past about beaches which have scores of footwear called thongs or flip-flops washed up on them have said that all, repeat all, of the thongs on any one beach are either right foot or left foot, not a mix of each as would be expected. This apparently is because the shape of the thong affects how it moves in ocean currents and so a right thong is washed one way and a left thong another from the point of origin. If this is so, this could very well be the same for shoes. In light of this then it's not surprising that all the shoes with feet are from the right side. Somewhere else there could therefore be a group of left foot shoes with feet in them from the same victims of a mass drowning of some sort, if that is what occurred, given that feet can naturally come free eventually from a drowned body, as reported, while a foot in a shoe in such instances means that decay of the foot is slowed down while also making it float. jdinperthwa

  • Posted By: skd500 @ 06/24/2008 7:44:50 PM

    If they can determine length of time that the feet have ceased being alive, my guess is what you are looking at are the remains of the tsunami victims from a few years back that took place the day after Christmas. It would take quite a bit of time for the body, and bones to pull away from the foot, and decompose to this point, however encasement in a sneaker would prevent that portion from decomposition, thus the foot is preserved.

    If my theory is correct, the current may have a few more surprises for them in the next few months, if the dishonest people accessing Craig's List stop hoaxing people. Many of the families of these people never found them, and if they could DNA trace them, it would provide a closure for them at least. skd500

  • Posted By: mcleodmn @ 06/24/2008 6:52:55 PM

    2 points for the headline

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