Seventh severed foot found in British Columbia

Another human foot has washed up on British Columbia's south coast, the seventh to be found on the province's beaches since August 2007.

November 12, 2008
By The Associated Press

RICHMOND, B.C. — Another human foot has washed up on British Columbia's south coast, the seventh to be found on the province's beaches since August 2007.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Constable Annie Linteau confirmed that human remains were inside a New Balance running shoe spotted Tuesday afternoon.

"My first reaction was this was a small size, maybe a woman's shoe," said Ken Johnston, who fished the shoe out of the Fraser River off Richmond after his wife spotted it while walking their dog.

One right-foot New Balance running shoe — the only one belonging to a woman — has been found since the first foot was located on Jedidiah Island in Georgia Strait on Aug. 20, 2007. That shoe turned up May 22 on Kirkland Island in the Fraser River, not far from the site of Tuesday's discovery.

All the other feet were found at several sites on or near Georgia Strait, including remains in a shoe found in August in Washington state's San Juan Islands.

Police have determined that two of the shoes — found Feb. 8 on Valdez Island and June 16 off Richmond — are a match.

DNA testing linked one foot to a depressed man who disappeared in 2007 but the other remains have not been identified.

Authorities say it appears that all of the feet separated naturally from bodies as they decomposed in the water.