Police were combing the shore of the Ottawa River after a woman walking her dog found a black running shoe containing a human foot on the shoreline near Rockcliffe Parkway on Thursday.

Shirley Kent was gathering debris washed up under the Belvedere lookout when she came across the black high-top Reebok lying on its side, half out of the water.

Shirley Kent, who found the shoe, said it was unnaturally heavy so she cut open the laces and peeled back the sock to find what looked like a foot.
(CBC)

"When I picked it up to put it in my garbage bag, it was too heavy, so I figured … it needs to be checked out,” she said Friday.

She cut open the laces, and when she peeled back the black sock, she said she could see the shape of a heel and the foot bones that lead to the toes.

"So we put the sock back in the shoe and we phoned the police,” she said.

The foot belonged to an adult, said police Const. Alain Boucher on Friday morning.

He could not provide further information about the shoe, its size or whether it belonged to a man or woman.

However, police said the foot inside could have been decomposing for more than a year.

The major crime unit began investigating after the woman contacted them around 7:10 p.m. Thursday, according to a police news release issued Thursday night.

Police are searching for clues and possibly other body parts that may be related to a human foot found on the shore of the Ottawa River Thursday evening.
(CBC)

Police always initially presume foul play in cases of found human body parts, Boucher said, and as of Friday morning, police in hip waders were combing the area near where the shoe was found.

“Maybe there are other body parts. We don’t know,” he said, adding that police are checking their files on missing persons to see whether the foot could belong to any of them.

The foot has been transported to the morgue for examination, the release said.

Boucher said it could be days before police have the results.