Revealed: Human feet that washed up on Pacific coast were from people who committed suicide - and were wearing buoyant rubber-soled shoes

It is a mystery which sparked a string of wild and bizarre theories.

But the reason why at least 12 human feet have washed up off the Pacific coast of Canada has turned out to be rather more mundane.

Most of the victims were suicides who threw themselves off bridges into the water after which their bodies decomposed naturally, investigators have revealed.

Mystery solved: Fisherman Stefan Zahorujko’s boat overturned on January 5th 1987 off the coast of Vancouver; the remains were identified as his last month



The remains were then taken by the tide and deposited at random places along the coast of British Columbia in Canada and Washington State in the U.S.

The only reason the victims’ feet survived is that they were all wearing rubber-soled shoes like trainers, which fish are unable to chew through.

The mystery was solved by the coroner of British Columbia who said that they were not victims of the Asian Tsunami of 2004.

Stephen Fonseca, who has worked each of the cases, also dismissed the theory they were victims of a human trafficking ring or that they might be stowaways who smuggled themselves onto a container ship as it left Vancouver.

According to reports in the Canadian press, the discoveries began in August 2007 when a man's foot was found on Jedediah Island, northeast of Nanaimo in British Columbia.

What initially seemed like a bizarre coincidence became the subject of a major investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and British Columbia's coroner's office

Over the next five years they have turned up with occasional regularity, always clad in a rubber soled shoe.

Mr Fonseca put a team of five investigators onto the case to identify each person from their foot, no mean task as feet cannot even tell you a person’s race or age.

The team cross-checked the locations where the feet were found with missing person’s directories and even data on where the shoes were manufactured.

Through painstaking work they were able to work out the real story behind the mystery, including the most recent victim which was found on November 5th 2011, which was ‘definitely an accident’.

Mr Fonseca told the New York Post that most of the victims jumped from a bridge over the Fraser River, which flows into the Pacific Ocean at Vancouver.

Grisly find: One of the shoes found on the end of a severed foot which washed ashore in British Columbia

Floating to the surface: All the feet found were in buoyant, lightweight rubber-soled sneakers. Heavier footwear would have sunk to the bottom, officials say

Others could have been in accidents, but there was no conspiracy theory.

Mr Fonseca said: ‘It’s very explainable. The unusual nature of this is that the feet were found in a very short period of time.’

The feet had major investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and British Columbia's coroner's office when they became an international story.

During one 11 month period six feet washed up, although it has been six months since the latest discovery.

FOOT MYSTERY THEORIES

Belonging to victims of a boat or plane crash in the ocean

Foul play: Victims of a sadistic killer

Remains of the 2004 Asian tsunami victims

The feet of missing persons who have committed suicide

Limbs of stowaways who fell overboard

Initially it was thought that all the feet had come from four men who died in a light aircraft crash off the West coast of Canada in February 2005.

However in August 2006 the theory fell apart with the discovery of a fifth right foot, meaning that something else was to blame.

When it emerged that one had apparently been deliberately severed, rumours began spreading that a serial killer with a twisted calling card might be at work.

Complicating matters were claims by oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer who has said that the feet could have drifted as far as 1,000 miles.

Pranksters have also made the investigation more difficult. In 2008 they planted a hoax ‘foot’ on Vancouver Island which renewed interest in the case.

Only last month further intrigue was added to the story when one foot which washed up was finally identified - 25 years after it was found.