Another mysterious right foot floats ashore in Gulf Islands

For the third time in six months, a right foot wearing a sneaker has washed up on the shores of the Gulf Islands, in the Strait of Georgia.

The latest foot was found on the east side of Valdes Island, near Nanaimo.

Last August two other right feet, both male and both wearing size 12 sneakers, washed ashore on nearby Gabriola and Jedediah Islands.

Those cases are still under investigation, and so far no links between the three discoveries have been established, police said.

The latestappendage has been turned over to the B.C. Coroner's Service, and the RCMP is reviewing missing-persons filesthat couldshed light onits discovery.

Two feetfound in August

Police have yet to determinewhether foul playhad anything to do with the feet.

The discovery of the first two feet last summer prompted speculation that they might have belonged to men who died in a plane orboating accident.

The first was discovered Aug. 20 on Jedediah Island by a 12-year-old girl from Washington state, who found a black-and-white Adidas shoe with a sock and foot still inside.

The second was found six days later on Gabriola Island by a Vancouver couple who were hiking along the beach when they came upon a Reebok running shoe with human remains inside.

"We have been informed that it looks like both feet had separated from the body by natural decomposition, possibly while in the water,'' Cpl. Garry Cox of Oceanside RCMP on Vancouver Island said in August.

Cox said a cleanly cut foot would have been very suspicious, but natural decomposition suggests the victims might have drowned.