Human leg found in Vancouver waterway

GlobalPost

A severed leg was found bobbing in a Vancouver, Canada waterway on Saturday, discovered by a duo of fishermen.

CBC News reports that the leg, which was attached to a tennis shoe, has yet to be linked to its owner, although it's likely to belong to the same person as a foot found in the same vicinity in August 2011.

As it turns out, there's something of an epidemic of severed, floating feet in British Columbia waters. Sounds extremely worrisome, but the body parts likely belong to people who (hopefully) committed suicide.

Read more from GlobalPost: Austrian man Hans Url saws off foot to keep unemployment benefits

As a body decomposes, feet naturally become detached from a corpse's leg - and then float to the surface of the water, as shoes are both buoyant and protective, says The Province.

CBC reports that 11 shoes containing human bones have been found on southern British Columbia beaches since 2007. That's a rather impressive number.

Police are unsure if there's foul play involved, as it does seem rather odd that severed feet are only washing up on beaches in Western Canada, and not on beaches on the Atlantic coast, says CTV News.

"Body parts do eventually make their way to the surface. So why are we only getting feet? Why are they only in running shoes? I'm not sure I buy the theory that it's because the shoe floats,"  Mark Mendelson, a forensics consultant and former Toronto detective, told CTV in September.

Bet all this really makes you want to go fishing in western Canada, right?

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