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William Shatner:
You know what?

I've been around for a while.

I've traveled the world,

met some interesting people,
done some crazy things.

So, you might just think

there's not much that can

take me by surprise.

You'd be wrong.

The world is full
of stories and science

and things that
amaze and confound me

every single day --

incredible mysteries
that keep me awake at night.

Some I can answer.

Others just defy logic,

like the man who falls
47 storeys

from a New York skyscraper
to the street below

and lives!

Or what about the mysterious
and deadly ice chunks

the size of basketballs,

falling from the sky and
smashing into people's homes?

And then there's
the bizarre story

of the seven dismembered feet

that washed up
on the beaches of Vancouver,

wearing sneakers!

Yep, it's a weird world...

and I love it!

December 7, 2007.

New Yorkers
witness one of the

strangest events
in the city's history.

Gary Smiley:
I can remember
myself and the other guys

looking up and saying,
"It can't be."

It's something
that I cannot explain.

William Shatner:
A dramatic accident
with an outcome

that just defies reason.

Listen to this.

Our modern way of life
runs on rules,

laws that need to be obeyed,

telling us
what we can or cannot do.

But really,
most of these rules

can't stop you
from doing anything.

If you choose to,
you can break laws.

But science is quite different.

Take physics,
for example.

Here there are
indisputable laws

that physically
cannot be challenged,

certain facts that are absolute.

I mean,
the laws of Gravity

are not exactly
open to interpretation, right?

It's nearly Christmas
in New York...

an exciting time
for everyone in the city,

including brothers
Alcides and Edgar Moreno.

A working team,
December 7th is another

regular day on the job,
but the Morenos' job

is far from regular.

High above the streets
of the Big Apple,

Alcides and Edgar
do what would certainly give me

the heebie-jeebies.

They're high-rise
window washers.

The window washers
that I speak to

seem to enjoy their work.

They can enjoy
the sunrise in the morning,

and this is
their chosen field,

and they like it.

William Shatner:
Today, the brothers will be
cleaning the Solow Residences

at East 66th Street:

over 400' of glass.

On the roof, the men prepare
to launch a platform

like this one.

It's designed to suspend them
on the side of the building

as they work.

Unknown to them,
there is a serious malfunction,

and the Moreno brothers
are just moments from

a terrifying
and spectacular accident.

Richard Mendelson:
The two window washers

were preparing to launch
the rig that morning.

They got their equipment ready
on the roof of the building.

So, they had
a bucket of hot water.

They had squeegees.

And they had this rig
attached to a carriage

and had electric motors

that would elevate them
and hold them in place.

William Shatner:
Photos from that day
show the brothers

put down their lunches
before positioning the platform.

Kevin Dillon:
It's approximately
22' in length by 2½' wide,

and it's designed
to carry two workers.

Richard Mendelson:
Then they swung the rig
over the edge of the building

and got on the rig.

When the men stepped
on the platform,

the platform
immediately gave way.

(Siren wailing)

Alyx Kilian:
I saw the commotion.

There were a lot of people
standing in the street

around the building
screaming and pointing.

William Shatner:
New York State
Safety Inspector Kevin Dillon

arrives on the scene
and is witness to the carnage.

There was debris
all over the place,

scattered
all over the place.

There was blood.

William Shatner:
Tragically,
30-year-old Edgar Moreno

was killed instantly,

but among the wreckage,

paramedic Gary Smiley
makes an amazing discovery.

We entered the debris field

because they had said
there was a guy in there,

and we started to move a lot
of the metal and the debris.

When I first saw him,
he was in a sitting position.

His hands were
up around his chest.

I went to touch him,
and he gasped,

and that took us aback
because then we realized

that this gentleman
is actually still alive.

I can remember myself
and the other guys looking up

and just saying to ourselves,

"It can't be.
It's just impossible."

William Shatner:
With no time wasted,

Alcides is rushed
to the hospital.

The fall has left him with
broken ribs and legs

and severe spinal injuries.

But just two weeks later,
on Christmas day...

Dr. Philip Barie:
I don't know what adjective

you'd care to use:
unprecedented, extraordinary.

If you are
a believer in miracles,

this would be one.

William Shatner:
Alcides gives his wife, Rosario,

the best present
she could ever wish for.

He speaks for the first time
since the accident.

He will make
an incredible recovery.

I don't know what to tell you.

I'm still at awe.
I'm still in shock.

I've worked as a paramedic

in New York City
for approximately 25 years,

and I've never seen anyone
fall from that height before

and survive.

It's truly amazing.

I think Alcides
has a guardian angel.

To fall in excess of over 400',
it's just truly amazing.

It would be millions

and millions
and millions to one,

the odds of surviving
a fall like that.

I just can't explain
how he could do that.

William Shatner:
Okay,

even for New York City,
this story is weird.

Let's think about this.

My single-storey house
must be, what, 15' high?

Even if I fell off my roof,
it could be fatal.

So, imagine if my house
was over 400' high.

How can someone fall
47 storeys and survive?

The whole descent
would have been over

in less than five seconds,
but during that time,

something extraordinary
must have happened.

But what?

So, let's try and unravel
this seemingly

impossible mystery

by starting at the top.

It's up here

that investigators
have discovered

that the cause of
the accident might be

the key to understanding
how Alcides Moreno survived.

According to evidence recovered
from the accident scene,

the fall was set in motion
by two simple

but deadly events.

The first concerned
the Moreno brothers themselves.

If the workers had followed

all the safety rules
and regulations,

they would have been
attached to their safety ropes

and would have been
left dangling

on the side of the building.

So why weren't the
Moreno brothers saved by theirs?

Simple.

They weren't wearing them.

The second crucial event
concerned the way

the scaffold had been set up.

Now, the window-washing platform
was supported by cables

connected to two arms overhead.

These loops of cables,
fastened by crimps,

were the only things securing
the rig to the building.

And while analyzing
photos of the wreckage,

U.S. Labour Department Official
Richard Mendelson

discovered just how
that rig failed.

Here we see a shot
of one of the crimps.

So, this is a crimp
we recovered from the scene.

And the crimps
are the attachment devices

that were supposed to hold
that wire rope together.

William Shatner:
Amazingly,
these two tiny crimps

are capable of supporting
the full 1700 lb. weight

of a window washing platform

and its crew,
if properly fitted.

Richard Mendelson:
What caused
the platform to collapse

was the fact that the crimps

had not been pushed in enough.

Since it wasn't crimped enough,

the added weight
of the two brothers,

the two workers,

as soon as they stepped
on the platform,

was enough to
cause it to fall.

William Shatner:
But it's believed both crimps
failed nearly simultaneously.

That means the platform

was more or less
horizontal when it fell

and the two men stayed onboard

as it plummeted
to the street below.

This is where
hard science takes over.

Physicist
Professor Brian Schwartz

has investigated
every inch of this fall,

and he believes the platform

may have contributed
to Alcides' survival

by slowing
the rate of his descent.

Brian Schwartz:
It's a very improbable event.

If it were to happen again,

the likelihood of survival
is very, very small.

The platform had a total area
of 55 square feet.

So, that presented
a fairly wide area,

and, as a result,
the drag force was quite large.

That cuts the velocity
by about 50 miles an hour.

William Shatner:
When objects fall,
air resistance pushes up

to oppose the force
of gravity pulling down.

If the men hadn't been
on the platform,

they would have hit the ground
at around 110 miles per hour.

But because the force of drag
was pushing up against

the bottom of the platform
they were standing on,

they were slowed to
around 60 miles per hour.

Does that help?

Brian Schwartz:
It's better than 110,

but, uh, 60 miles an hour
is still fast enough

to really result in,
usually, death.

William Shatner:
So, the fact that Alcides
was still on the platform

wasn't enough to save his life
during the fall,

but what about the landing?

In some final,
split-second twist of fate,

could something
have broken Alcides' fall

enough to save his life?

Could the platform
have helped him here?

.

William Shatner:
It's weird but true.

High-rise window washer
Alcides Moreno

survived the
seemingly impossible,

a 47-storey fall
from a New York skyscraper.

But how?

As investigators
pored over the evidence,

they discovered
something even weirder:

an incredible series of events,
in the final split seconds,

that may have combined
to break Alcides' fall.

Richard Mendelson:
What we can see here
is we can see

scrape marks and some damage to
a parapet on one of the windows

and then a scrape going down
the face of the building.

And this is where we believe

that the side
of the scaffold platform

impacted
the short building next to it.

William Shatner:
No one knows for sure

if this impact
was the moment that caused

Edgar Moreno to be thrown
from the platform and killed.

One thing,
though, is certain.

Alcides remained
on the platform,

with the rate
of his descent reduced

as he entered
the final phase of the accident.

The fall occurred
in a certain way

in which the sides
of the scaffolding

hit the buildings
there in the alleyway.

And, as a result,

the landing was a lot longer
and a lot softer

than it would have been
had he just hit the ground flat.

William Shatner:
After hitting a ledge,

the platform struck
a low wall opposite,

breaking his fall further
and causing the platform

to react in a crucial way
that saves Alcides' life.

Richard Mendelson:
When the platform impacted

the adjacent building
and that short wall,

it collapsed into a V,

and my understanding is that
Alcides was located in that V

when the platform
collapsed onto itself.

William Shatner:
But how would that
have saved his life?

Being a big fan of NASCAR
and growing up with the family,

we've always watched
these horrific crashes...

where the car rolls and burns,

and, all of a sudden,
you see a hand go in

and release a seat belt,

and the guy walks away
from a crash,

and you scratch your head
and you say, "Well, how the--

"How did he survive that?"
you know.

And this,
in my opinion,

is exactly how he survived.

I believe that the platform
created a roll cage

and protected his body.

Brian Schwartz:
The platform acted
like a spring,

in some sense that
it broke his fall.

William Shatner:
The very platform that
caused this terrible accident

helped protect Alcides
from certain death.

But that's not all.

Alcides' posture may also
have helped save him, too.

The force of stopping got
distributed over his whole body.

So, the force on
any one part of his body

was a lot smaller
than it would have been

had he hit,
let's say,

with his head first
or feet first.

Gary Smiley:
You had 47 floors' worth

of cable and rope
that was down in the backyard.

It was a pretty immense
rubble field that he was just--

You know,
it was as if somebody

just placed him
in the middle of it,

in probably the only,
you know

survival position
you could have found him in.

William Shatner:
It's the last piece

to this incredible puzzle.

Against odds of millions to one,

a bizarre series of events

combined to save
this window washer's life.

Many people believe
Alcides' survival was a miracle.

Well, if you think
a miracle can be defined

as incredibly good luck,
they may be right.

But it was also combined

with the mind-boggling dynamics
of simple physics.

You don't need me to tell you

that the modern world
can be a pretty dangerous place.

Every day you go out the door,
there's literally

a million and one ways
you can meet a terrible end.

But, you know,
a man's home

is his castle.

There's no safer
place to be, right?

At least that's
what I used to think,

but guess what?

Times are changing.

Now me, you,

everyone we know is in
mortal danger at all times

from a mystery assailant

who can strike at our homes

at any time.

You see,
all over the world,

unidentified objects have begun
falling from clear blue skies

with destructive
and potentially fatal

and very scary consequences.

Come with me to the sleepy,

rural town of Brush, Colorado.

DaNelle Hagan was in the
comfort of her own home

when she was attacked.

DaNelle Hagan:
This is my home behind me.

Saturday morning,
my daughter and I got up

and were just doing

normal Saturday morning,
relaxing kinds of things.

I'd gone to sit
at the computer,

which is just right outside
the kitchen area.

Kind of quiet, having a coffee,
trying to wake up.

William Shatner:
Relaxing at home,

DaNelle has no idea
her Saturday morning calm

is about to be
shattered in the most

terrifying and weird way.

.

William Shatner:
Brush, Colorado, 2009.

A normal Saturday morning
for DaNelle Hagan

is about to turn very,
very weird.

So, I was sitting about
3' outside the kitchen door

when I heard a huge,
what sounded like an explosion.

And, in that instant,
the kitchen had been destroyed.

I had beams hanging;
the ceiling had crashed in --

just unbelievable.

And I was in shock,
just speechless.

I was too dumbfounded
to be scared at that point.

William Shatner:
Initially, DaNelle thinks

it was caused by
an exploded gas line,

but when an inspector
surveys the damage,

its extraordinary origins
are revealed.

DaNelle Hagan:
The guy said, "You know,

you didn't have
an explosion out;

you had something
crash through."

As we started looking around
the kitchen is when we first saw

this huge chunk of ice about
the size of a bowling ball.

William Shatner:
A huge ball of ice
weighing about 20 lb.

had crashed into DaNelle's home.

Ice?

But ice is our friend.

We skate on it.

We put it in our drinks.

We use it to
help relieve injured muscles.

But no...

this ice was not nice.

It was huge...

just like this one...

weighing about 20 lb.

Imagine this
crashing through your ceiling!

So, where in heaven's name

did a piece of ice
this size come from?

A basketball-sized
piece of ice:

maybe Shaq O'Neal
finally made a free-throw!

To answer that question,
I'm gonna need some help.

Researchers at the Texas Tech
are going to see

what kind of damage ice can do.

How are they
going to do this?

With a huge cannon,
of course!

Today, we're gonna
shoot some ice.

William Shatner:
In their first test,
they are going to shoot

a 5-lb. ice chunk
at its terminal velocity.

That's the fastest speed that an
object can fall through the air.

For a 5-lb. chunk,

the terminal velocity
is about 110 miles per hour.

This is going to simulate
the speed of a ball of ice

the size of a melon
falling from at least 2,000'.

Researcher:
Clear.

Three, two,

one.

William Shatner:
Well, look at that.

It went right through,
like a bullet.

Let's see that again,
in slow motion.

So, we've confirmed that
a falling chunk of ice

can rip through
the roof of a house,

but this is nowhere near

the destruction seen
in DaNelle's roof.

It is estimated that a ball
of ice the size of a basketball,

like the one
that hit DaNelle's house,

would have likely been
traveling at a terminal velocity

of approximately
150 miles per hour.

But the test is
only a partial success,

because we're not able
to calculate from what height

the ball of ice actually fell.

To determine this,
we'll need more clues.

The most likely suspect,
you might think,

is this stuff --
hail --

frozen water droplets

that form in thunderstorm clouds
up to 70,000' high

and have been known
to do some serious damage.

Like here,
in Edmonton, Canada,

where in 2007,
hail the size of baseballs

smashed down from dark,
heavy clouds

onto residential areas.

But 700 miles away in Vancouver,

a sky filled
with thunderstorm clouds

isn't exactly what
Chris Drab remembers when a huge

ice bomb
crunched into his neighbourhood

in 2009.

This was
undoubtedly the strangest,

the most fascinating thing
I've ever seen in my life.

It was a very hot, sunny,

bright Friday afternoon,

and I was mowing my lawn.

And I hear
what was a loud noise,

like an artillery shell
or something thundering.

And I look up in the sky,

and I see something falling
at incredible velocity.

I could see,
coming down this direction here,

uh, what looked like
a large chunk of rock

or a large chunk
of something, you know,

trailing a plume of white debris
or smoke after it.

I didn't know
what to think of it.

It didn't compute,
because the sky was sunny.

It was hot.

There wasn't
a cloud in the sky.

William Shatner:
Just like the case
of DaNelle Hagan,

Drab's ice bombs

came from seemingly nowhere,

on a perfectly calm

and sunny afternoon,

meaning it can't be hail.

Okay, where else
could it be coming from?

Here's a clue.

DaNelle's house
happens to also be

in the approaching flight path
of a major airport.

Coincidence?

Could the world of aviation

be responsible for these
mysterious ice bombs?

As commercial pilot
Stuart McAskill knows,

the aviation industry has
problems of its own with ice.

Stuart McAskill:
There's been a lot of accidents

because of icing on airplanes.

So, now, icing
and flying in icing

is of huge importance
and a number one item

in all of aviation.

William Shatner:
Ice builds up on the aircraft

in two ways:
on the ground

or in flight.

Flight icing occurs

when a plane flies through

a cloud filled
with tiny droplets

of super-cooled water
that freezes upon impact.

Stuart McAskill:
For ice to form on a wing,

you need
super-cool water droplets.

As ice builds up,
it doesn't conform to the wing.

It's all over the place,
and you can get

varying degrees
of aerodynamic instability.

So, it's a weight thing.

You're destroying the lift.

William Shatner:
There is no doubt
ice can be a major problem.

That's why the aviation industry

has developed sophisticated
anti-icing equipment.

So, we've looked
at the wheel well;

we've looked at the wing.

Shiny nose.

I'm sorry.

But is there
anyplace left on the plane

we still haven't looked?

Oh, no!

.

William Shatner:
Could the urban legend

of airplanes letting go
of their frozen toilet waste

in mid-air
actually be true?

Is it possible that the 20-lb.
ice chunk that fell from the sky

and destroyed
DaNelle Hagan's kitchen

originated in the lavatory of
a passing commercial airliner?

Stuart McAskill:
An aircraft system
is just the same

as an RV system
in that it is self-contained.

This is the access panel
for the lav service,

and, uh,
it's serviced on the ground.

In flight:
not accessible.

And any seepage from this area
in flight would be minuscule

and certainly would not
lead to any ice buildup

that would fall
from the airplane.

I can't imagine where
this sort of ice formation

would take place,
or anything of this size,

on an airplane
and then jettison itself

and fall to the earth.

I really can't imagine
how that might happen.

William Shatner:
If it's not hail
and it's not from an aircraft,

maybe we need to go higher still

to find the source
of these killer ice bombs.

Could the culprit be
from outer space?

Take comets.

Comets are made of rock,
dust, frozen gases and ice --

ice that vaporizes

to resemble a tail
as they approach the sun.

Sometimes they
smash into planets,

like in 1994,

when a fragment from
Comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9

collided with Jupiter,
releasing a frightening energy

equivalent to
6 million megatons of TNT.

But as Astronomer
Robert Stencel knows,

the earth has
a natural defense system

to help protect us
from similar disasters.

What we anticipate happens
when comets encounter

the earth's atmosphere
is that they heat up in a hurry,

and 99.999% of that

would vaporize
before they reached the ground.

So, could the ball of ice

that destroyed
DaNelle Hagan's kitchen

have been the surviving
remnant of a comet?

Robert Stencel:
For something
to survive to the ground

and still be
the size of a basketball,

it would probably have to be
of order a million times larger.

William Shatner:
And that's the problem.

In a world that
constantly watches the skies,

would a comet 160 miles across,

plummeting through space
towards us,

go unnoticed?

So, we checked out hail.

We checked out the plane.

We checked out the bathroom,

and we checked up in space.

Where else
is there left to look?

Meet meteorologist David Jones.

He has a theory
that we are dealing with

a whole new kind
of weather phenomena

that puts us all
in potential danger.

They're not cosmic.
They're not from space.

The theory is that
these great chunks of ice

form very high
in the upper atmosphere,

above the level
where most of normal,

day-to-day weather occurs.

William Shatner:
This is where
we need a science lesson.

It's right here,

in the boundary region between
the moist upper troposphere

and the cold lower stratosphere,

where Jones believes the process
of ice crystal formation starts.

Wind shear,

caused by the mixing
of warm and cold air,

creates powerful turbulence

that is strong enough to keep
ice bombs aloft as they grow.

Wait a minute!
Wait a minute! Wait a minute!

What are these
mutant ice monsters called?

I'll tell you.

Megacryoo--

Crymata?

I'm sorry.

I'll get it right next time,
when there's no airplane.

There's nothing wet,
I promise you.

So, what are these
mutant ice monsters called?

I'll tell you.

Mega--

Megacryometeor:
mega meaning large;

cryo meaning ice;

and meteor meaning
of atmospheric origin.

William Shatner:
Frighteningly,

reports of these megacryometeors
seem to be on the increase.

In 2007, for example,
a resident of Tampa, Florida

was working on his
red-hot Ford Mustang,

when suddenly,
it got iced by a chunk

the size of a basketball.

It struck with so much force,

the roof was
completely flattened

and the heavy sports car bounced
4' off the ground.

And that,

according to many scientists,

is because Megacryometeors

might be yet another
consequence of global warming,

increasing
the levels of warm air

that reach the stratosphere.

David Jones:
There's no way to say

whether we're going to see

more of these weird events
in the future.

William Shatner:
So, whether the
megacryometeor theory

is true or not,
one thing is for sure.

It's time to watch the skies

because you might be next,

or, even worse, me!

Some people just love
hanging out at the beach.

Not me.

I'm a pool kind of guy.

I don't like skimming it,
but I like swimming in it.

I mean, just think about all the
dangerous and slimy creatures

that are in the ocean,

and then there's
all the junk we put in there --

pollution, trash, sewage.

Did you know
it's been estimated

that for every
square mile of ocean,

there's around 45,000 pieces
of floating plastic in it?

Phew.

This next tale
is about the most sinister,

mysterious and downright,
I'm sorry,

weird collection
of sea-borne debris

ever to wash up
on the shores of North America.

.

William Shatner:
Vancouver, British Columbia --

a lovely place,
famous throughout the world

for staging
the 2010 Winter Olympics

but infamous for a series

of grisly and downright

weird discoveries.

August 20, 2007.

Jedediah Island near Vancouver.

A young girl
taking a walk on the beach

makes a disgusting discovery.

November 12, 2008.

A couple walking their dog

just a few miles away
in Richmond, British Columbia,

discover something
equally as horrific.

I saw a running shoe
thrown up on a rock.

I felt a strange sensation.

It compelled me
to do something about it.

Not visual;
it's just a sense that I had.

William Shatner:
Curiosity soon turned to fear
when they looked inside.

Then I could see
there was something in it,

so I wanted to
figure out what it was.

The shoe was
in pretty good condition.

As I turned it over,
it looked like

an athletic sock
that had been well aged

with what I would call a large
ham knuckle bone in there.

William Shatner:
Now, this is
where it gets really scary,

because what lay in the shoe
wasn't animal flesh.

It was a human foot.

So, what do we have?

Two Vancouver beaches,

two unrelated feet!

It was a shocking find but,
amazingly,

according to police,

not actually that odd.

There is a number
of waterways that surround

the Metro Vancouver area.

So, it's not that unusual

to have a variety
of body parts wash up

and it's not
usually newsworthy.

William Shatner:
These two feet
were just the beginning,

and as more sneakers wash up,

news of this macabre mystery
quickly spreads fear

throughout the region.

Reporter:
The left foot
was spotted Monday morning,

floating in the waters
off Westham Island.

The kind of case you could see
in a crime show on television,

but it's happening right now
in the Gulf Islands.

Annie Linteau:
After the fifth, sixth,

seventh foot,
it does appear pretty odd.

William Shatner:
In a little over a year,

a total of seven feet

wash up on beaches
in close proximity to Vancouver:

five right feet
and two left,

all wearing sneakers.

The media call it
"the case of the missing feet."

Meanwhile, the police

and Criminologist
Dr. Gail Anderson

struggle to identify

who the decomposing
body parts belong to.

We have DNA on all of
the feet that been found.

The problem is we don't have
anything to match it to.

The DNA alone isn't
going to tell you anything.

It's just a barcode.

William Shatner:
You see,
that's the problem.

Without bodies,

identifying the victims
is nearly impossible,

but at least
analyzing the DNA

does provide some data.

Annie Linteau:
Our investigation
determined that the third foot

and the fifth foot were a match

and the fourth foot

and sixth foot
were also a match.

However, we still don't know
who those feet belong to.

The case of the missing feet.

I shudder at the thought.

Where did these
seven sneakers come from,

and to whom
did the feet inside belong?

All over the world,
journalists, scientists,

bloggers and amateur sleuths
weighed in with their theories.

Were funeral home workers
dumping bodies in the ocean?

Were medical students
carrying out a sick prank?

Or was this the work of
another Vancouver serial killer?

Yes, I said another one.

A number of people have
brought up the theory

of it's probably
another serial killer.

William Shatner:
In 2007,
Robert Pickton was convicted

of the murder
of six Vancouver women,

and charged
in the deaths of 20 more.

Could he have been
responsible for the feet too?

But if the feet had been
cut off by a serial killer,

the telltale signs of the act

would be visible
to forensic experts

like Coroner Jeff Dolan.

With respect to separation,

whether it's a natural
or mechanical separation

from the body,
experts who

conduct tool mark analysis
examine the bones

to see what type of mechanism

had actually separated that bone
from the rest of the body.

William Shatner:
But the team came up
with a surprising answer.

There is no evidence

that there was any kind of

mechanical separation
of these bones.

They have come apart at their
natural point of separation.

William Shatner:
So, if the feet had not been
intentionally severed,

what happened?

Dr. Anderson believes
she has the answer,

based on her research
into what happens

to submerged flesh

as it decomposes.

Gail Anderson:
This is VENUS --

Victoria Experimental Network
Under the Sea.

So, look at
decomposition under water

so that I could see
how a body decomposes,

what animals feed on it.

When you bring the body ashore,
you see marks on the body.

Well, what's that?
Is that suspicious?

Is that foul play,
or is that just something

naturally caused
by animals in that area?

William Shatner:
Instead of putting
more human cadavers

at the bottom of the ocean,

Anderson has another option,

a pig.

Gail Anderson:
Pig carcasses
are very similar to a human,

so they do decompose
in a very similar manner

to the way
a human body decomposes.

William Shatner:
According to Dr. Anderson,

the sea is a very
inhospitable place for bodies.

Gail Anderson:
In these cases,
with VENUS,

we've been able to see it
actually performed

by these animals,
by the crabs,

in particular
the large Dungeness crabs,

and also
the smaller squat lobsters.

William Shatner:
Once the flesh is gone,

it doesn't take long
for the body to come apart --

a nasty process
known as disarticulation.

Wrists and ankles

have got lots of
tiny little bones in them.

So, it's very easy
to disarticulate those

by natural activity.

All right, so the process
of decomposition underwater

will lead parts of the body
to come loose,

to disarticulate.

So, why was it
that only feet were washing up

on the beaches
of British Columbia?

Why not hands
or even heads?

Perhaps the answer lies
in the footwear itself.

Gail Anderson:
The feet that
were in running shoes.

Now, if you think about
a running shoe,

throw one in a swimming pool,
it floats.

So, it's a flotation device,
and I think that's probably

why you're
specifically finding feet

and not finding
the rest of the body.

William Shatner:
Okay, so,
we know that feet

can naturally come free
as a body decomposes.

We've figured out

why they floated ashore.

But the real mystery remains.

Where did
the seven feet come from?

.

William Shatner:
In a little over a year,

seven dismembered feet
washed up on beaches

in and around Vancouver.

Police now know
that the feet weren't sawn off,

thankfully,
and that it was the sneakers

that floated them to shore.

But the origins of these feet
remain a mystery.

Many believed that the feet were
a grim souvenir of the massive

Asian Tsunami of 2004,

a theory supported by the fact
that one of the shoes found

was only sold in India, in 2003.

Jeff Dolan:
We were getting
phone calls, emails,

letters from around the world,

people who had missing

family members
from the Tsunami.

William Shatner:
Seems plausible,

but according to
Oceanographer Eddy Carmack,

the tsunami theory
holds no water.

One thing to understand
about the oceans is that

they are a system of highways
that we call gyres.

Water goes around and around
in these gyral orbits,

and particles
following these orbits

can come from
great distances at sea.

I would think it very unlikely
that the feet would have come

from the Indian Ocean.

The ocean currents
don't link up that well.

It's not a very direct path,

and if something did
drift from there,

it would take well over

a decade to reach these shores.

William Shatner:
Given that feet started
appearing just three years

after the tsunami,
investigators are forced

to start looking
for another explanation

and turn to the recent crash
of a small plane

off the coast
of British Columbia.

Jeff Dolan:
At that stage
of the investigation,

only one individual
had been recovered.

The rest were
unaccounted for.

When the feet
began to appear,

we expected to have
a hit in that cluster.

William Shatner:
But these hopes
were soon dashed.

The DNA from the feet

doesn't match with
any of the crash's victims.

A global search for clues
has turned up nothing.

The feet can't be
coming from tsunami victims.

They didn't float
thousands of miles

across the sea.

So, maybe they came
from closer to home.

Facing a dwindling list

of possible explanations,

Carmack has a theory
that the shoes' origin

is a lot closer to home,

and he has a novel way

to prove it.

Eddy Carmack:
Well, what I'm
holding in my hand

is an old,
recycled running shoe.

Ah, it's been inserted with
a satellite-tracked GPS system,

and it has been ballasted.

So, when this is
thrown in the water,

it's about as close to

replicating the pattern

that a drifting shoe
would follow.

William Shatner:
By dropping these shoes

from various points
around Vancouver

and tracking
their every motion

via GPS,
Carmack believes he knows

which currents carried
the missing feet to shore.

Behind me
is the Alex Fraser Bridge.

The Fraser River is flowing

from my left
to my right to the sea.

Three of the shoes were found
on the mouth of the river

on the islands downstream.

So, the direction of travel
is certainly consistent

with the pathway of the river.

William Shatner:
So, it appears that the river,

not the ocean,

is the likely source
of the shoes,

but investigators
still have no names,

and they're growing desperate.

Annie Linteau:
So, we have gone public

with the photos
of the footwear

in the hopes that
somebody would recognize it

as belonging
to that of their loved one.

William Shatner:
This ID tactic
seems like a long shot,

but, apparently,
it's right on target.

Annie Linteau:
The first foot,

which was located
on Jedediah Island

on August 20, 2007,

was later identified
to that of a missing person,

a missing male
from the lower mainland here.

Uh, he was last found to be in
some type of emotional distress.

William Shatner:
Suddenly,

in a sea of red herrings,

one theory stands out:
a surprising appearance

of naturally
disarticulated body parts,

with no visible sign
of homicide,

all found
in water systems near bridges.

Annie Linteau:
They could be suicide victims.

They could have been people
that jumped off the bridge.

We have a number of people
that are presumed dead

in the database,

where only their vehicle
was found parked on a bridge.

William Shatner:
And while the
suicide theory seems likely,

it remains just that:

a theory.

They all remain
active investigations.

There's no such thing
as a cold case.

We never thought that we would
end up at seven feet.

Only time will tell

whether or not
there will be an eighth.

William Shatner:
In the end,
there are no hard answers,

just more questions.

And after three years,

seven feet
and endless questions,

the case of the missing feet
remains open and unsolved.

So, there we have it --

three strange
and mysterious stories

but each with
many plausible theories

to explain them.

Did Alcides Moreno
survive his 47-storey fall

because a
freak series of events

conspired
to break his fall?

It seems so.

And the lone ice bombs

falling from clear,
blue skies all over the world:

a new quirk of global warming?

Maybe.

And will we ever find
a conclusive answer

to finally close the case

of Vancouver's
seven washed up feet?

Who knows?

Join me next time
for three new stories

that will be,
undoubtedly...

weird or what?