Why Are Human Feet Still Washing Ashore in the Vancouver Area?

A human foot washed up in the Vancouver area Tuesday -- the 11th one in four years.

According to police, the severed foot with attached leg bones was inside a running shoe and was found floating in the water in Vancouver's False Creek.

Coroner's office officials are investigating, the Vancouver Sun reported. For now, police have no explanation.

"There is no indication at this early stage in the investigation how the remains came to be there," police spokeswoman Jana McGuinness told the paper.

Eight feet, all inside running shoes, have washed ashore in British Columbia since 2007. Three more have been found in Washington state.

According to the Vancouver Sun:

The first foot, discovered in August 2007 on Jedediah Island, northeast of Nanaimo, B.C., was associated with a deceased man whose name police withheld at the request of his family.

A man's right foot found on Gabriola Island in August 2007 remains unidentified.

Two feet found on Valdez and Westham islands in July 2008 belonged to the same man.

And two female feet found in Richmond, B.C., in December 2008 belonged to the same woman.

In October 2009, a right foot was discovered on a beach in Richmond.

The New York Daily News adds this:

The bizarre discovers (sic) have attracted international attention – and spawned fears of a serial killer.

But cops have steadfastly denied that anything sinister is behind the gruesome discovers, suggesting that the deaths were drownings or suicides and that the decaying feet separated from corpses naturally in the water.