I was preparing a blog post about the decades’ long problems with medical examiners in Knoxville, TN, when an article on a CNN blog caught my eye: “Canadian Floating Feet Mystery Deepens.” I urge you to read it, if you have any reasonable doubt that juries ought to listen to medical examiners’ courtroom testimony with a great deal of skepticism. (Think Dr. G’s claim that Caylee’s remains proved the manner of death was homicide.)

If you don’t care to read such a gruesome article, here is the punch line:

“For the 11th time in the past four years, a human foot in a sport shoe was found on a Pacific Northwest shoreline. . . . ‘These human remains did not show any evidence of trauma whatsoever,’ CBC quoted [Medical Examiner Stephen] Fonseca as saying.”

Okay, doc, exactly how did the foot become detached from the ankle if it was not by trauma?