Mounties are appealing for help in identifying a mystery foot that washed ashore in Southern B.C. -- the seventh in just over two years.
The latest gruesome discovery was made by two men walking along an area known as Triangle Beach in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond late Tuesday.
The foot is inside a white, size 8.5 Nike running shoe.
"We are asking for the public's assistance in familiarizing themselves with the shoe and if they recognize the shoe as belonging to that of their loved one to call their local police department," Cpl. Annie Linteau told CTV British Columbia.
Autopsy findings confirm the foot is human but additional forensics are underway to determine the sex.
An international mystery
In a mystery that has garnered worldwide attention; six other running shoes with feet inside have been found along B.C.'s coast since August 2007.
The first, and only identified, matched the DNA of a man who was depressed and likely took his own life.
Two feet found in New Balance running shoes separately in Richmond belong to the same woman, but she remains unidentified.
A matching pair of men's Nikes also remains unidentified, as well as a right male foot found in summer 2007.
There is no evidence of foul play in any of the cases, Linteau said, and it appears the feet became detached while the bodies decomposed.
"There are some theories out there that perhaps we are recovering more feet than anything else because the foot is somewhat protected from the element by the running shoe."
DNA from the latest foot will be extracted and compared to known missing people or human remains previously discovered.
"We're talking here about people that may have gone missing from a boat, missing fishermen, planes that may have gone down," said Linteau.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Maria Weisgarber
