"Non-Human" Foot Found In Landfill

[nataraja]

In Virginia, USA, with a photo: http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2007 ... 7/spupdate

Oops! 'Human' foot belonged to ape

Date published: 2/12/2007

BY BILL FREEHLING

It turns out that the foot found Saturday in Spotsylvania County was not that of a human, authorities said today.

The search through 127 tons of trash at the Livingston Landfill ended abruptly this morning after the foot was cleaned and X-rayed by state medical examiners.

They determined the foot was not human and was possibly that of an apelike species, said Spotsylvania Sheriff Howard Smith.

The medical examiner's office called the sheriff's office this morning, Smith said. They did not say if it was a monkey or some other type of ape-type species-only that it wasn't human.

"The good news is that we don't have a homicide," Smith said.

Smith said about 35 fire, rescue and sheriff's employees had been looking through the garbage for about an hour today before the search ended. They did the same all day Sunday.

Smith said they will not look for the remainder of the apelike species.

The left foot was found about 3 p.m. Saturday by landfill workers cleaning the treads of a bulldozer used to spread and cover garbage.

It was sent to the state forensics laboratory in Richmond for examination.

Smith said the foot appeared to have been cleanly sawed off above the ankle.

He said there was just skin and bone-no hair.

Smith said a member of the medical examiner's office at the landfill Sunday also believed that the foot belonged to a human.

It appeared to be about the same size, Smith said.

Smith said he has no idea how the foot ended up in the landfill.

It was covered with sludge and hadn't decomposed significantly when found.

He said it had appeared to be an adult's foot; it seemed big for a baby's.

The 127 tons of trash had been delivered Saturday to the Massey Road landfill.

The search included heavy machinery, rakes, cadaver dogs-and even sifting by hand.

Smith said they searched about half the trash Sunday and were preparing to tackle the rest today.

Interesting that despite the headline, the text doesn't refer to "an ape" as such but only "apelike species"...

Would be nice to know the actual size of the foot too, they are being a bit vague about it...

It certainly looks more hominid-like than pongid ape-like - it has particularly human-looking toenails... Over at cryptozoology.com suggested identities have included a skinned bear paw, but the clearly shown nails make that look unlikely to me...

Could this be a sasquatch or skunk ape foot? And if so, how did it get to be "neatly sawed off at the ankle"? Could the rest of a body be somewhere?

Hope they do a DNA test...

 

[GNC]

Maybe a Bigfoot was caught in a trap and had to saw his foot off? There doesn't look to be an easy answer to this one. Of course, they might have missed finding any other body parts at the moment.

 

[ruffready]

Foot 'looks like bear's hind paw'

BY KIRAN KRISHNAMURTHY
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Feb 15, 2007

click here upadate



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