Mystery of why human feet keep washing ashore in the US and Canada took 10 years to solve

For so many years, human feet washed up on the shores of the US and Canada, leaving many people pretty baffled.

The reason for human feet appearing as people enjoy themselves on the beach is pretty grim, though it's not as sinister as you may think.

This bizarre story began in August 2007, when a young girl on Jedediah Island, British Columbia, found a single trainer washed ashore.

The girl picked up the sneaker only to find a decaying foot inside.

Over the next ten years, more and more human feet were being found washed up on beaches in the US and Canada, attracting much speculation as to how they ended up there.

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Some believed it to be the work of a twisted serial killer, the 'mafia' disposing of bodies or even extra-terrestrials.

None of these theories had any substance, however.

Following another discovery shortly after the first, Cpl. Garry Cox of Oceanside RCMP on Vancouver Island told CBC: "We have been informed that it looks like both feet had separated from the body by natural decomposition, possibly while in the water."

The island's regional coroner Rose Stanton also confirmed: "Both feet were decomposing, but still had flesh on them."

In total, between 2007 and 2019, 21 feet had been discovered by people walking on the beach. While surely a horrific thing to find, these mysterious appendages had authorities baffled for years.

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Fortunately, coroner Barb McLintock had the solution. "We pretty well think we know what happened in every case. There’s none that have any suggestion of homicide.. in every case there is an alternate, very reasonable explanation," he told the National Post.

In response to the speculative tales people credit for the washed-up feet, like aliens and murderers, he said: "It's sad but true... a lot of this is simply the quelling of the public imagination, to say, no, this is unfortunate and they’re all very sad cases."

It's all to do with the improvements in running shoe technology.

"It really didn’t come up until we had running shoes that floated so well. Before, they just stayed down there at the bottom of the ocean," McLintock explained.

The feet themselves are often believed to have come from people who took their own lives or drowned as a result of an accident, with their bodies sinking to the bottom of the sea.

As creatures feed on them, the feet then separate and float back to the surface, later washing ashore.