Human foot washes ashore on Whidbey Island

WHIDBEY ISLAND -- A human foot has washed ashore on Whidbey Island's east coast.

A person walking along the beach near a Greenbank boat launch late Friday morning found what has been identified as a human right foot, Island County Sheriff's Office said.

The foot was likely in the water for less than two months, investigators said, and judging by the size of the foot, it likely belonged to a woman or a child. The foot reportedly had no skin; only muscle and tendon remained.

Because Island County does not have an open missing person case, deputies are expanding the investigation to include outside agencies. A DNA profile is pending.

The foot found on Wednesday is the eighth such find along the coastal waterway since 2008. However, unlike the others, it was not encased in a tennis shoe, and as a result, investigators do not believe it is linked to the others.

Seven severed feet found in shoes since 2008

The first three feet washed ashore about 40 miles southwest of Vancouver on the islands in the Strait of Georgia in 2008. The first foot was discovered last summer by beachcombers. Days later, a foot was found inside a man's Reebok sneaker. The remains of a third right foot were found Feb 8, 2008.

The fourth foot was found May 22, 2008, on Kirkland Island in the Fraser River, about 15 miles south of Vancouver, B.C.. About a mile away, the fifth foot - and only left foot - was discovered several weeks later in water off Westham Island.

A sixth foot was found on Washington State's Olympic Peninsula about 30 miles west of Port Angeles in August 2008. And another severed foot was found on a beach in Richmond, B.C. two months later.

Investigators thought yet another foot had been found along the Britsh Columbia shoreline in May 2008, but days later the finding was deemed a hoax when the content of the shoe was identified as an animal paw and a sock packed with dried seaweed.

A connection has made only among two of the found severed feet. A coroner matched a pair of dismembered female feet that shed up on the shores of British Columbia. The right foot was discovered on Canada's West coast, and the left foot was discovered six months later. Both were encased in New Balance running shoes.

Curtis Ebbesmeyer, an oceanographer based in Seattle, Wash., said when a human body is submerged in the ocean, the main parts like arms, legs, hands, feet and the head are usually what come off the body.

He said his theory is that the feet came along as a result of an accident that might have happened up along the Fraser River, that washed down and spread out along the Straight of Georgia.