Detectives in Berkeley are investigating the city’s first homicide case in over a year.
Around noon Saturday, Berkeley police received a call about the discovery of a body in an apartment building. They responded to the 1900 block of California Street, a few blocks from the Trader Joe’s on University Ave. A property manager told them they had performed a welfare check on a unit and found the resident dead inside her apartment.
The woman was a Berkeley resident in her 30s, police said in a news release Saturday. The investigation is “still in its preliminary stages,” police said, but her death is presumed to be the result of a homicide. No further information was provided.
It’s the first homicide probe in Berkeley since January 2025, when a delivery driver followed his stolen van from Oakland to Berkeley. At Russell and Acton, the man confronted the two thieves, and the three people were all stabbed in the chaos. A woman who was allegedly part of the theft was killed by the delivery driver. Although the man was charged with murder, a judge threw out the case a few months later.
In 2024, there were four homicides in Berkeley, all of which resulted in suspects being charged.
Anyone with information about Saturday’s homicide should contact Berkeley detectives at 510-981-5741, police said.