Authorities are beginning to suspect that a cult like group of serial killers are targeting college men across the US..the link appears to be the 'smiley face' icon...read more...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24366804/

I heard about this. It's scary, especially because it seems there may be several groups with a similar MO, but which may be operating independently rather than through a single leader.

Its unlikely than any copy-catting is involved either...as the public was unaware of the professed link until now. The smiley face is so devoid of reason that it bespeaks a deep seated insanity...but a cult of insane serial killers? Its too much like a drive-in budget horror movie.

Okay, this is getting REALLY creepy: a FIFTH human foot has washed up in Canada ... this time a left foot. I really wonder what's going on? Was there a multi-person accident? Is there a missing boy-scout troop and a not-so-hungry bear? Was there a plane crash and the feet simply detached? (the article stated that limbs come off during the decaying process). Or, are we seeing the detritus of crime gangs, or even, as in my previous post, Abu Graib Prison Ships for serious terrorists?

When two unrelated human feet washed up on the beaches of two small islands north of Vancouver in six days last August, a spokesman for the Mounties said the odds of it happening were a million to one. This week the number of feet found rose to six.

Police in British Columbia are confounded, saying they have never seen a case like it.

The feet have all been recovered along the shorelines in the Strait of Georgia, which lies to the south and west of Vancouver.
They were all encased in trainers, and five out of the six are right feet. Police say it is not yet clear if a crime had been committed. They said they had found no evidence that the feet had been severed.

DNA has been collected from the first feet, but police say that there has been no match to anyone on their missing persons database.

The unusual nature of the case has prompted much speculation by amateurs about a possible murder mystery, links to organised crime or to the 2004 Asian tsunami.

Experts have come up with different theories as to how far the feet could have travelled on ocean currents. There was initial speculation that they could have drifted more than 1,500 miles.

However, as the number of discovered feet goes up, experts have scaled down the distance they believe the feet have drifted.

Curtis Ebbesmeyer, a Seattle-based oceanographer who specialises in how things float on the ocean's currents has dismissed the idea that they could have come from the Asian tsunami, because the distance is just too vast.

He was quoted by AP suggesting that the feet were a result of a possible accident along the Fraser River, and that they could have washed down and spread out along the Strait of Georgia.

Dr Simon Boxall, an oceanographer from the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton in the UK, agrees that the feet are likely to have originated locally.

"The fact that they are being found repeatedly along the same stretch means they have to have come from roughly the same source, and that source is likely to be local," he told the BBC News website.

He added that because of the way objects are dispersed by ocean currents, it is unlikely that six feet that originated hundreds of miles away could have ended up in one relatively small area.

"If, for example, they had travelled from as far away as Hawaii, there would have to have been thousands in the first place for six to turn up in one area," he said.

In his view, it's a coincidence that most of the feet are right feet, as there is no reason why right and left feet should float in different ways.

Mr Ebbesmeyer was quoted in the Vancouver Sun as saying that when bodies decompose, they break into 10 pieces, two arms, two legs, two feet, two hands, the head and the torso. This raises questions as to what has happened to the rest of the bodies.

Experts say that it's all to do with the running shoes. These would have helped keep the decomposing feet intact, and protect them from fish. The soles would also have helped them float, allowing them to be easily swept away from the body.

Police have said it is possible the feet come from the passengers aboard a small plane which crashed into the water in the region several years ago - their bodies were never recovered.

The Coroners Service of British Columbia has investigated a potential link. To date, it has failed to match DNA samples collected from members of the crash victims' families with DNA obtained from some of the mystery feet.

Dr Joseph Finley, a physical scientist and retired special agent with the FBI, told Canada's National Post newspaper that depending on the race of the victims, the feet might belong to stowaways who hid on commercial ships heading for Alaska.

Dr Boxall acknowledges that forensic scientists working to recover DNA profiles from feet could have an extremely difficult task on their hands.

Even if the remains are identified, scientists may not be able to determine how and when the victims died.

"Seawater can be horrendous," he says. "It can corrode very quickly or, bizarrely, it can preserve things quite well - it depends on how much biological activity there is at the time."

Dr Gail Anderson, a specialist in decomposition at the Simon Fraser University was quoted in the New Scientist as saying that we "know next to nothing about what happens to bodies under water."

She added that feet normally come apart from legs in water, adding that flesh immersed in water turns into adipocere tissue, a soap-like substance, that no microbes or scavengers such as crabs will eat.

It is likely the case will remain a mystery for some time. As one investigator put it this week, this is not CSI - a reference to popular fictional TV show in which challenging forensic cases are solved in no time.

"I could see two white bones sticking out of a black sneaker," Sandra Malone told the National Post newspaper.

"It was definitely severed, like it had been sawn off."

And the under/over on someone claiming its supernatural? I say.. 1 month. The under/over on someone trying to make a buck off of it? 2 weeks.

Weird though. Really weird.

Its got to be some guy who has a bunch of caskets that are just a FEW inches too short "modifiying" corpses and disposing of the evidence by dumping it at see. I dont really think that..but its got to be some weird explanation LIKE that.

"The coroners service, a forensic pathologist and an anthropologist have all examined the shoe and remains, and determined a skeletonised animal paw was inserted into the shoe with a sock and packed with dried seaweed," "It is the position of BCCS that this type of hoax is reprehensible and very disrespectful to the families of missing persons.

"It fuels inappropriate speculation and creates undue anxiety for families and communities while wasting valuable investigative time and resources that could be spent on the main investigations," BCCS said.

So it seems that the sixth 'foot' found on wedensday is a hoax! The British Columbia Coroners Service have said that the latest remains are that of an animal.



It's strange that the other five feet have washed up over the course of a year and the police can make no connection between them. I find it difficult to think that these are five unrelated incidences.

Scary and alarming.

Excerpts: The idea of some sinister national gang out killing young college men is a hard theory to sell. But to the parents who have lost a son, a far-fetched reason is better than no reason at all.… Sure, but such a terrible, awful reason…

I also found this: 40 Drowning Victims May Have Been Murdered by Smiley Face Gang