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An RCMP handout photo shows Foot #3 "Nike" Running Shoe - Right Foot, found Feb.8, 2008 on Valdez Island, near Gabriola, B.C.Globe files
The B.C. Coroner's Service has identified two human feet that washed up on B.C. shores in 2008 as belonging to a 21-year-old Surrey man reported missing four years earlier.
"We are holding back the ID because of the family's request for privacy," Steve Fonseca, manager of the identification and disaster response unit of the chief coroner's office, said Tuesday.
The feet, found on Valdez Island and Westham Island inside matching size 11 Nike running shoes, were identified through DNA analysis.
The feet had not been removed from a body, but rather had detached in the natural manner that occurs in a watery environment, said the coroner's service.
Foul play has been ruled out in this specific case, just as it has in the case of the other feet that have been identified so far, said Mr. Fonseca.
Seven feet belonging to five people were washed up between 2007 and 2009.
Four of those were subsequently identified as belonging to three different individuals.
"All of these individuals deaths are well documented and there is enough evidence to suggest that these deaths were not suspicious," he said, linking them to misadventure and suicide.
Three feet remain to be identified - one male foot and two feet belonging to the same female, said Mr. Fonseca.