VANCOUVER, B.C. - For the fourth time in less than a year, a right human foot has been found off one of four different islands in the Strait of Georgia in British Columbia.
Police said Friday that they do not know if there are any links among the feet. Speculation in the region is rife, including that the feet were from slaying victims or they were the remains from a plane crash. Police have not reached any conclusions.
Police said a passer-by found a human foot in a shoe on Kirkland Island in the South Arm of the Fraser River on Thursday.
"It's certainly a mystery we intend on solving," Police Constable Annie Linteau said. "It's certainly very unusual."
Last August, a foot was found inside a man's Reebok sneaker on nearby Gabriola Island, just a few days after another foot was discovered by beachcombers on Jedidiah Island.
The remains of a fourth right foot were found on the east side of Valdez Island on Feb 8.
There is no evidence to suggest the foot -- or any or the previous three-- was forcibly removed, Linteau said.
"All four were wearing socks and were in a running shoe," Linteau said.
Two of the feet are size 12. Police have not released the size of the others.
There has been speculation the feet may have come from a plane which hit the water three years ago, killing five men off Quadra Island. Only one body was recovered.
The victims' families paid for the plane wreckage to be pulled from the depths but there were no bodies inside the wreckage.
Linteau could not comment on whether or not the feet were from the crash victims.
"That's something we are exploring as well," she said.
British Columbia chief coroner Terry Smith said DNA profiles have been taken from the first three feet. He could not comment on the investigation or the new finding.
The fourth foot is now at his office, Linteau said.
Linteau said missing persons files are also being examined.
Curtis Ebbesmeyer, a former professor of oceanography at the University of Washington who studies floating objects, said when the third foot was found that the feet could have drifted from as far as 1,000 miles.
Ebbesmeyer said it may not be a coincidence they were found in the same area. He said left shoes and right shoes often tend to wash up at different times at different places because they float differently.
He added that there are beaches that collect mostly rights and others that collect mostly lefts because the winds or currents sort out left and right foot wear.
Ebbesmeyer speculated the feet belong to people who have disappeared while out on the water.
