CALGARY -- Detectives are investigating the city's 21st homicide of the year after the body of a woman was found dumped in Fish Creek Park yesterday.

Dan Saklofske said he was walking his dog back to his Deer Run home just before noon when he spotted a corpse partly obscured by undergrowth and poplar trees near the Bow Valley Ranch turnoff just east of Bow Bottom Tr. S.E.

"I caught a glimpse of something and the closer I got I could see a pair of feet," said Saklofske, 24.

The body was obscured from Bow Bottom Tr. by a shrub-covered berm, which Saklofske said he skirted to keep his dog off the busy road.

"It did look like it was hidden a bit," said Saklofske, adding he detected a strong odour that suggested the corpse had been there several days.

With the help of a friend, who brought him a freshly-charged cellphone, Saklofske said he then called police.

"I was surprised it was so close to home -- it's a little alarming," he said.

Saklofske said he couldn't see pants covering the woman's shins but couldn't tell if the rest of the body was naked.

Police taped off a wide area around where the body was found just inside the north entrance to Fish Creek Park and were tight-lipped about the discovery.

While police haven't publicly determined foul play was involved, homicide detectives were called in after officials from the medical examiner's office attended the scene.

The spot is just metres away from where a stretch of roadway thronged by joggers and bicyclists, some of whom expressed shock at the news.

But others, like Edward Johnson, 62, said he wasn't surprised given the considerable attraction the park seems to hold for criminal types.

"It seems like whenever something happens, people are coming into this park, we've seen the police helicopter here a lot but we've never had a body," said the Deer Run resident who was enjoying a Labour Day bicycle ride along the nearby pathways.

"It puts a crimp on the holiday."

Other bicyclists said they were alarmed given the number of children who frequent the area.

Police say an autopsy on the body might not be performed until tomorrow.

BILL.KAUFMANN@SUNMEDIA.CA