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Mystery of feet washing up on Canada's beaches

A police major crime investigation is underway after three human right feet, each shod in a sneaker, arrived on beaches on western Canadian islands.

The third foot was found earlier this month on a beach on Valdez Island, some 80km west of Vancouver, police said, while the first two feet washed up on beaches last August.

A police major crime unit has been called in and is "assisting in the investigations," police spokeswoman Annie Linteau said on Friday. "It is an unsual situation."

A formal police statement on Thursday merely said: "It is not known at this time what relationship, if any, this foot has with the two feet recovered last year in the same area, those cases are still under investigation and there is no further information available. Police have yet to determine if foul play is involved in this latest discovery."

Previously, after the first two feet were found, police played down the possibility of foul play and said that decomposition might have caused severance of the feet from their legs.

The first two feet were found on Gabriola Island and Jedediah islands, which like Valdez are part of the scenic Gulf Islands in the Strait of Georgia, best known as a haven for recreational sailors from throughout North America.

All three feet are now in the care of the British Columbia Coroners Service, said Jeff Dolan, assistant deputy chief coroner. He said coroners would deal with the third foot the same way as the first two, by ordering examinations by a pathologist and an anthropologist and then performing DNA testing.

"We're looking for any information in respect to age, race, gender, anything that that might give us a perspective of who these people are," Dolan said.

Dolan said the DNA profiles already completed from the first two feet have not matched the DNA of any missing persons in the databanks.

Dolan said there is not enough information to determine if the owners of the feet are still alive, suffered foul play, lost their feet because of natural causes or even how the feet came apart from their legs.

"We're not ruling out anything at this point," he said.

Provincial coroners investigate 8,000 deaths annually, he said, "but to have three cases so similar in nature, this is the first such incidence we've had in recent memory."

The first two feet were size 12, said Dolan, while the size of the third foot is not yet known.
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