An athletic shoe containing bones and flesh has been found on a beach about 30 miles west of Port Angeles, and authorities are investigating...
PORT ANGELES — An athletic shoe containing bones and flesh has been found on a beach about 30 miles west of Port Angeles, and authorities are investigating whether it may be linked to a series of human feet found in shoes in nearby British Columbia waters.
A woman found the black, high-top shoe on Friday while walking along the shore of the Strait of Juan de Fuca at the mouth of Jim Creek. She reported it to Clallam County sheriff’s officials on Saturday.
The discovery comes nearly a year after the first of five shoes containing feet were found washed ashore in British Columbia.
Detective Sgt. Lyman Moores said the shoe probably belonged to a man, but he couldn’t identify the brand or size.
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“When we say a foot it’s kind of a speculation at this point,” Moores said Sunday. “What it was is, it was a sock inside the shoe that appeared to contain decomposed flesh. We don’t know at this point whether that’s animal, whether it’s human, or what it is.”
Five athletic shoes containing human feet have been found along the Strait of Georgia between Vancouver Island and the British Columbia mainland since August 2007. The Strait of Juan de Fuca separates Vancouver Island and Washington’s Olympic Peninsula.
A sixth foot found in June in B.C. was determined to be an animal paw that had been shoved inside an athletic shoe as a hoax.
“We’re a little apprehensive since the last one was a hoax,” Moores said.
Tests should determine by the end of the week whether bones and flesh shoe are human, he said.
DNA testing linked one of the Canadian feet to a depressed man who went missing a year ago.
Investigators have also concluded that two of the five feet belonged to one man and that one foot was from a woman.
British Columbia coroner Jeff Dolan has said there was no evidence the feet were severed.
Experts say that when a human body is submerged in the ocean, main parts like arms, legs, hands, feet and the head are usually what come off the body.
The coroner in Washington’s San Juan County, which also is near the area where the feet were found, is trying to determine whether any of the feet belong to a footless body found on Orcas Island in March 2007.
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Information from: Peninsula Daily News, http://www.peninsuladailynews.com