Grisly mystery deepens as foot found on island

POLICE investigating the discovery of two human feet on the banks of the River Humber have extended their inquiries abroad after a third foot was found in Holland.

A tourist walking along the island of Terschelling off the coast of the northern coast of the Netherlands made the grisly discovery on Saturday, September 11, a month to the day after a foot was found by a member of the public on Cleethorpes beach, near Grimsby.

Another foot, in a brown leather steel toe-capped boot, had been found by a cyclist on the south bank of the Humber near Barton, on Saturday, September 4.

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Although forensic tests on the Dutch find have yet to be completed, the Yorkshire Post understands that police are satisfied they have now identified all the remains and are close to concluding their inquiries.

The Terschelling foot and the Cleethorpes foot were both in training shoes and are believed to belong to a man from South Yorkshire, who was last seen in December 2008. The Barton foot, which was found at Chowder Ness Foreshore, is believed to belong to a Lincolnshire man who was last seen in February this year.

Both men were reported missing at the time of their disappearance and their families have been informed.

Officers from Humberside Police are continuing to liaise with their colleagues in the Netherlands but do not believe there are suspicious circumstances surrounding any of the finds.

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Unless further body parts belonging to either man are discovered their fate could remain a mystery.

A coroner's inquest, which seeks to establish where and how a person died, cannot be held on the basis of body parts which are not vital to human life.

Police realised they may have a match with the Dutch foot because of the similarity in footwear.

The completion of DNA tests by authorities in the Netherlands is expected to confirm this beyond doubt.

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Islanders on Terschelling have grown accustomed to unexpected objects being washed up on the shore, and many of their farm buildings were built from the masts of shipwrecks. Containers blown off the decks of cargo ships in the North Sea have also been washed up.

The tourist on the Friesian island reported finding a sock with bones inside it.

Cyclist Steve Paine has described stumbling across his find near Barton while out with his daughter on the river bank.

He said: "There was a swan in the water along the water's edge and while my daughter was taking a photograph of the swan I noticed there was a man's tan leather boot with a sock hanging from the boot.

"I had a look at it and realised there was a human foot inside the boot."