Doctor Explains Mystery Behind Sneakers Filled With Human Feet Washing Up On Beaches

A TikTok video of a British doctor explaining the years-long mystery behind the discoveries of sneakers filled with human feet washing up on beaches in the Pacific Northwest has gone viral.

According to reports, there were at least 20 instances of such grisly discoveries since 2007 on the coastline of the Salish Sea that stretches from Canada's British Columbia to the US State of Washington. The latest report was on Jan. 1, 2019, from Jetty Island in Everett, Washington.

There were many conspiracy theories connected to the mysterious discoveries, including the possibility of a serial killer with a foot fetish or a mafia disposing of bodies in the ocean. However, Dr. Karan Raj who works with National Health Service in England has come up with a simple explanation based on human anatomy and the way footwear is designed today, Insider reported.

"When a human corpse falls to the ocean floor, it's quickly set upon by scavengers," Raj said in the video that was watched more than 650,000 times. "These scavengers are lazy feeders and prefer to tackle the softer parts of the body than the tough, grisly bits," he explained.

Raj explains that as the softest parts of the human body are the tissues and ligaments around the ankles, they often get detached from the rest of the body.

"When scavengers chow down on this, the foot will detach pretty quickly from the rest of the body," he said.

The doctor believes that this fact of human anatomy coupled with the buoyancy of modern-day sneakers make them float and eventually wash ashore.

The "perfect storms" in Salish Seas make conditions further suitable for the shoes to wash up in the area, news outlet Totally The Bomb reported, citing a National Geographic report.

Oceanographer Parker MacCready explained in the report that since the Salish Sea is a large and complex body of inland water, they act as a trap and ensure that water-bound items stay inside. The winds in the area that blow from east to west brush these trapped items further onto the shore.