Police Seek Help in Solving Gruesome Hoax

(Image credit: ABC News)

Police in British Columbia are asking for the public's help in finding the person responsible for filling three child-sized shoes with "meat-like" material and leaving them on a public beach.

A tourist found one shoe on Thursday and alerted authorities, who uncovered the other two shoes during a search of Clover Point Beach in the city of Victoria.

The tourist was said to be "quite shaken" by the discovery, which closed down the beach for several hours.

A pathologist confirmed on Friday that the substance inside the shoes was not consistent with human remains.

Over the past few years, twelve other shoes with human remains have washed up on beaches in British Columbia and neighboring Washington state, ABC News' Seattle affiliate reported.

Victoria police plan to show the shoes to the public this week in hopes someone will help them identify the person responsible for perpetrating the hoax.

Public mischief carries a possible five-year prison sentence in Canada, according to Victoria police.