Foot found on Michigan beach

POLICE TURNING TO RCMP IN B.C. FOR HELP

(August 1)  A human foot encased in a sock and size 10 Reebok sandal was found washed-up on a Lake Huron (Michigan) beach this week.  Investigators already have a few missing persons cases that may, ultimately, help solve the mystery.

One of those cases, according to the globeandmail.com, concerns the “mysterious” drowning of a Detroit lawyer in August 2005.

Still, investigators are not ruling-out the possibility that the Michigan case is connected to the “mystery feet” that have washed ashore in British Columbia:

The Michigan foot joins five detached feet that have washed up in B.C. in the past year, sparking a police and forensic investigation and heated speculation as to their origins. Two of the feet belong to the same person, and a third belonged to a man who went missing from the Lower Mainland a few years ago.

“I’m not going to discount any possibilities at this point,” Det. Sgt. Harshberger said, “including that this has something to do with what’s happened up there in Canada. … We’ll certainly be looking to investigators there for some guidance on this one.”

The most likely source of the foot, he said, is Charles (Chuck) Rutherford, 35, who is presumed dead along with his girlfriend, Lana Ann Stempien, also 35. The couple reportedly drowned on a boat trip that started in Belle River, Ont., a lake community near Windsor, in August, 2005. -globeandmail.com

The Lake Huron foot has been taken to a Michigan State Police Crime Lab.  The foot’s DNA is expected to be compared to the DNA profiles of missing persons and unidentified bodies.

*To read the Beyond90Seconds.com archives concerning the B.C. mystery feet, please click here.