Just before 2 PM, a bridge operator noticed a small fire in the high vegetation from a distance.
Jose Gracianlo spoke with the operator and said, "He put the fire out and I guess there was a lady lying face down from what I heard."
Lt. Wayland Gee from the Alameda Police Department confirmed, "It was partially clothed, the clothes were burned up good portion of the body was burned up."
Alameda police are calling this a suspicious death. They're not ruling anything out, but speculation, driven mostly by shock, is running rampant around the island.
Michael Thyen lives nearby and said, "Seems like a dispose of a body type thing and to burn it seems pretty dramatic."
Gregory Litt, who plays basketball every week there said, "I think somebody killed her. If she was burned to death I don't think nobody would commit suicide just by setting themselves on fire."
This is Alameda's first suspicious death of the year.
Last year there was one murder in the city, Cindy Le, who was killed after a robbery.
That crime was solved four months later.