The Salish Sea Feet | 21 Sneakers, No Bodies

Jinkies—since 2007, at least twenty-one human feet have washed ashore along the coastlines of British Columbia and Washington State. All of them still wearing athletic shoes. No bodies. No explanations. Just feet.

In this episode, Shane, Josh, and Kim investigate one of the strangest forensic mysteries of the 21st century. The gang traces the trail from that first disturbing discovery on Jedediah Island—when a twelve-year-old girl found a Size 12 Adidas sneaker that was far too heavy—through seventeen years of shocking discoveries that had the world convinced a serial killer was stalking the Pacific Northwest.

The theories ran wild. A drug cartel dumping bodies. A government cover-up. "The Sneaker Killer" targeting victims by their footwear. The 2004 Asian tsunami somehow depositing remains twelve thousand miles away. Someone even planted a hoax—an animal paw stuffed into a sneaker—desperate to feed the frenzy.

But the truth? It might be even more unsettling than fiction.

Forensic science eventually provided an explanation that nobody expected. Modern athletic shoes—with their lightweight EVA foam and air pockets—float. When bodies decompose in cold water, the ankle joint naturally separates within days to weeks. Before the 1970s, leather shoes would have kept these feet on the ocean floor forever. But Nike Air technology turned human feet into messages from the dead, carried by currents that all flow toward shore.

The BC Coroners Service has been categorical: no evidence of foul play in any of the discoveries. No tool marks. No cutting. Every identified victim matches a documented suicide, drowning accident, or natural death.

And yet... not every case fits neatly into that explanation. Antonio Neill was twenty-two when he disappeared from Everett, Washington in December 2016. His boot—with his foot still inside—washed up on Jetty Island two years later. His mother recognized it immediately. The Snohomish County Sheriff's Office still has his case open. Still classified as suspicious.

Of those twenty-one feet, approximately six remain unidentified. Six families who don't know what happened to their loved ones. Six names attached to cold cases that may never be closed.

Some mysteries have explanations. Others have closure. This one offers something rarer—a reminder that the ocean keeps its secrets, but sometimes gives something back.

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