A tipster texted the Appeal at around 9:30 this morning (you can, too, at 6619-APPEAL), saying “Looks like there is a body being fished out of the bay by police at Embarcadero and Folsom.”
It took us a while to get the details, but here’s what we’re told thus far: according to SFFD spokesperson Mindy Talmadge, a witness pointed a suitcase on the rocks near the Bay out to firefighters returning from a Bay rescue.
They retrieved it, and discovered that the suitcase contained a body. (We don’t have details on the race or gender of the person.)
Apparently, the suitcase, which had police believe had been washed up on the rocks at Embarcadero and Folsom for about an hour, was discovered by Margarito Real, who was walking with his niece. A firefighter “opened it and I think I saw a leg” said Real.
They alerted the police at 8:53, says police spokesperson Lt. Lyn Tomioka. According to KTVU, , Lt. Mike Stasko, SFPD’s homicide head, says this discovery’s being treated as a “questionable death.”
The body’s currently with the medical examiner, and has yet to be identified. Update: The Chronicle reports that the body was a “white (woman) or a light-skinned Latina and appeared to be in her 30s,” and that “the suitcase had probably been in the water for only a couple of days, based on the lack of decomposition of the body.”
The ME’s office is expected to perform the unidentified woman’s autopsy on Wednesday.
