Loading The small patch of shrubs where she was found feels about as remote as inner-Melbourne gets. There are no high rises watching over it, few walkers beyond the paths and, at night, barely a light. Rough sleepers are known to frequent the area, and police believe they could provide vital clues about what happened. Police are treating the death as murder.

Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video The homicide squad's Detective Inspector Andrew Stamper, speaking at the site on Saturday afternoon, pleaded for anyone with information to come forward. He asked for those who may have been in the area on Friday night or early Saturday morning, either driving, cycling or walking, to provide any information they might have, no matter how small. "Sadly, at the moment we still don’t know who this female is, and we still don’t know the circumstance that brought her to the park or what happened," Detective Inspector Stamper said. "We are very, very keen for any members of the public who may have been in this area or overnight during the early hours of the morning to contact Crime Stoppers."

Uniformed police, detectives and members of the State Emergency Service at the scene in Parkville where a woman's body was found on Saturday morning. Credit:AAP "This is a horrendous crime, as all murders are," he said. "Our focus will be on catching the perpetrator of this horrendous crime." The body was found by people walking their dog, which was off the lead at the time, he said. SES crews with torches were searching the immediate area into the evening. A gurney was wheeled out to the edge of the scene around 5pm, after which police moved the woman's body.

Detective Inspector Stamper said it was too early to comment on the nature of the woman's injuries, whether she had been sexually assaulted, or if the killing had taken place somewhere else. A police helicopter hovering over the scene on Saturday afternoon. Credit:Justin McManus The woman's death appears to be the fourth killing in less than 12 months of a lone woman in public in Melbourne. It comes less than a year from the killing of Eurydice Dixon, whose body was found on an oval in Princes Park in Carlton North in the early hours of June 13, 2018. Ms Dixon was raped and murdered while walking home from a comedy club in the city. Jaymes Todd has pleaded guilty to murdering Ms Dixon in Princes Park in Carlton North, having followed her on foot from outside Flinders Street station.

Loading It also follows the killing of 21-year-old international student Aiia Maasarwe in Bundoora in January this year. Ms Maasarwe had moved to Melbourne for a one-year exchange program to study at La Trobe University. She was killed walking from a tram stop to her home. Her body was found on grass near a Bundoora shopping centre. Codey Herrmann, 20, has been charged with Ms Maasarwe's rape and murder. Last month African-Australian woman Natalina Angok was found dead in a street in Melbourne's Chinatown. The 32-year-old from Highton, a suburb of Geelong, was found by a passerby on Celestial Avenue near Little Bourke Street, early on the morning of April 24. Christopher Bell, 32, was charged with one count of murder. It is believed that he and Ms Angok had been in a relationship. News of Saturday's gruesome discovery carried a terrible echoes of those killings. "It's the death of a woman sadly again in our city," Detective Inspector Stamper said.