VANCOUVER. B.C. – Another mystery foot in a shoe has turned up on a Vancouver area beach, making this the seventh foot to be recovered since the remains began turning up in mid-2007.

RCMP said the coroner and detectives are investigating the remains of a right foot found inside a Nike running shoe that was found on a beach in Richmond near No. 6 Road and Triangle Road.
 

“Yesterday evening, two men were walking on the beach and located what appeared to be a foot in a white Nike running shoe, size 8.5. Members of the Richmond RCMP, the Forensic Identification Section and the General Investigation Section attended the scene, and seized the shoe and its contents,” said Cpl. Annie Linteau.
 

Starting in 2007, shoes with human remains began to surface on the B.C. coastline and so far authorities have not been able to explain the origins of most of the feet or why they become detached from other parts of the body.

 Tests conducted by pathologists confirmed the remains inside the shoe were human.

“Additional forensic examinations are underway.," police said.

The Police and Coroners Service use information on physical characteristics from exams by forensic pathologists and anthropologists, along with DNA analysis to build a profile to be used to determine identification,” said Linteau in a statement.
 

Prior to the latest find, RCMP major crime detectives, the Delta Police and the coroner have been probing six feet in running shoes that were found at various locations.
 

The first was identified and associated to a dead man who lived in B.C., said Jeff Dolan, director of B.C. Coroner's Service. Dolan said the name of the person was not disclosed at the request of family.

The two female feet found in Richmond were matched and came from the same woman whose identity has not been established, said Dolan.

In December two male feet were found on Valdez Island and Westham Island were also matched as belonging to one man, he said. Again, the identity of this man has never been confirmed.

A male right foot found on Gabriola Island in August 2007 remains unidentified.

Dolan said the coroner's office now has six feet belonging to at least four people.

He said a search of major aviation or marine disasters was conducted with a view to matching some of the feet but proved unhelpful. Dolan told Examiner.Com that the mystery is unparalled in the field of pathology he knows of no other area of the world where feet in running shoes have turned up.

“We have looked at various high profile aviation or marine incidents in the hope of matching these to anyone lost at sea and none of those match the DNA profile,” said Dolan in an interview.

“The similarities are that it is a foot that is disarticulated from the body and it is an athletic shoe in all cases,” he said. “I use the term running show – but they are all athletic shoes.”

“It certainly is a sequence of events that we haven’t see around here before and we’re learning from contacts from around the world that this is the first time anywhere this is happening,” he said.

“The latest is a foot inside a running shoe,” said Dolan. ” It is a size 8.5 Nike.”

“There has been no evidence to date to support foul play in relation to these discoveries and it appears that all remains separated from the body, disarticulated, through a natural process,” said Linteau.

“Investigators are continuing with their efforts to identify the remains in all these cases,” she said.