Another severed right foot discovered in British Columbia

The latest foot, still in its sneaker, was found last Friday on Valdes Island, a small community near Nanaimo that does not have regular ferry service and is accessible only by private boat or float plane.

RCMP say they're not sure whether foul play is involved and are trying to match any missing-person cases to the severed foot.

Two other right feet, both in size 12 men's sneakers, washed ashore on Gabriola and Jedediah islands last August. RCMP collected DNA from the grisly remains but could not match them to anyone in police databases. The three islands are within 60 kilometres of each other.

"It is unusual," said RCMP spokeswoman Const. Annie Linteau. "We are in the preliminary stages of this particular investigation, and of course we will not enter into speculation."

The Vancouver Island Major Crime Unit has sent detectives to investigate the cases, she said.

Meanwhile, the latest foot has been turned over to the B.C. Coroners Service for forensic testing.

"We'll be using pathology examinations and anthropology examinations to garner as much information as we possibly can about the remains," said Jeff Dolen, B.C.'s assistant deputy chief coroner.

Although it is somewhat common to find individual body parts, Dolen said this would be "the first instance of three such similar remains being discovered" in such proximity.

A body in the ocean will first sink and then, depending on the depth, float back to the surface as it becomes bloated with gas.

It is common for hands, feet and the head to detach as a body decomposes, said Gail Anderson, a forensic entomologist from Simon Fraser University who has submerged pigs in Saanich Inlet to study ocean decomposition. But generally, those limbs do not float, she said.

"Obviously there's some sort of current picking up light items and washing them to those particular areas," Anderson said.

Her research on pig carcasses has shown crabs, seals, sharks and fish are frequent scavengers of body parts.

Feet in particular can go through a process called adipocere, as the ocean turns the fat into a soap-like substance during weeks and months in the water, Anderson said. Once that happens, nothing will eat the flesh, she said. But she said it also makes it extremely difficult for forensic analysts to gather clues from the body part, such as its age.