A fourth right foot has now been discovered washed ashore near

The theory has legs, so to speak.  Information released by police confirms that all of the feet most likely became detached from their decomposing owners’ legs as a result of (relatively) natural processes – there is absolutely no forensic evidence to support a more colourful scenario involving punitive severance.  It is entirely possible that the plane’s passengers’ right feet, buoyed by plastic trainers, floated towards Vancouver of their own accord, albeit after Mr Decock stirred the water.  And what of the four left feet?  The selective migration of right feet towards Vancouver lends possible support to Prof. Curtis Ebbesmeyer’s theory that left and right footwear - and on occasion the feet in them - float in entirely different directions.  But if that is indeed the case, then where are the left feet headed?

According to Professor Curtis Ebbesmeyer (

However, the oceanographically-trained eye of Ebbesmeyer detects a physical system at work here.  He believes that the left feet may simply have detached themselves from decomposing bodies in entirely unconnected boating accidents before floating away (still encased in buoyant training shoes): “Left foot wear and right foot wear often tend to wash up at different times at different places because they float differently. There are beaches that collect mostly rights and other beaches that collect mostly lefts. The winds of the currents sort out left and right foot wear.”  Meanwhile, back at Vancouver Island, the latest word from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is that the case is still regarded as "very unusual".  The police have recently revealed that two of the feet are size 12.  Secrecy is being maintained over the size of the third.  

Ebbesmeyer’s body of oceanographic work (he is well-regarded for his rubber duck studies) is definitely worth a read.