June 21, 2008
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - What looks like a macabre pattern of detached, mostly right human feet turning up on British Columbia's southern coast is probably the result of an odd confluence of natural events.
"This could be a rather sick hoax by someone with access to cadavers and running shoes," said Richard Thomson, a physical oceanographer. "But I think there is another explanation."
The hoax theory got a boost this week when coroners announced that what was apparently a sixth human foot was really "a skeletonized animal paw" that had been inserted into a shoe stuffed with seaweed.
"My guess is that the bodies fall or are placed in the water where they eventually sink to the bottom. They are then eaten by benthic animals such as crabs and worms while they also decay through [bacterial] processes," Thomson said.
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