Breakthrough in the Detatched Foot Cases

From CTVbc.ca --

One of five human feet discovered on the shores of British Columbia has been matched with the DNA of a missing man, CTV News has learned.

The mysterious feet, which all appear to have naturally detached from their decomposing bodies, have puzzled investigators since the first foot washed ashore in August 2007.

Investigators have not named the missing man, but are expected to release more information next week. There are four other feet that still need to be identified, and two come from the same person.

Police "continue to investigate and generate a number of leads that have been generated as a result of us going public with the descriptors of the feet last week,'' Jeff Dolan of the BC Coroner's Service told CTV British Columbia.

On July 10, investigators released images of all the shoes found with the detached feet, and said they were looking through dozens of missing person files to check for links.

The first foot was found on Jedidiah Island, in the strait that divides Vancouver Island from the mainland. It was a right foot inside a Campus-brand men's size 12 running shoe that was mainly distributed in India.

Six days later, another right foot -- inside a man's size 12 Reebok running shoe -- washed ashore on Gabriola Island.

A third -- a right foot in a Nike sneaker -- was found in the area on Feb. 8 on the east side of Valdez Island.

The fourth and fifth feet were both found near the Fraser River. The fourth came ashore on Kirkland Island on May 22 and was the only one of the five that came from a woman's body. It was found in a New Balance running shoe.

The fifth, a size 10 left foot, was located a kilometre away on June 16. It was later determined to be a match to the foot found months earlier on Valdez Island.

An early theory about the origin of the missing feet was that they came from a 2005 B.C. plane crash. Four of the victims have never been found. But DNA testing did not appear to match two of them: Arnie Feast and Fabian Bedard.

DNA testing is ongoing for the other two crash victims, brothers Doug and Trevor DeCock.

Body found with missing feet

Meanwhile, in Washington State, police say they found a body with missing feet in the nearby San Juan Islands.

The body has not been linked to the missing feet in B.C., but it washed ashore five months before the first foot appeared.

Local coroner Randy Gaylord said he never contacted B.C. authorities about the body until CTV News spoke to him about the detached feet.