Police have identified Vancouver's first murder victim of the year, a woman who was found dead in bushes at Vancouver City Hall on Monday morning.

Spokesperson Const. Tim Fanning says 39-year-old Tracy Ann Guthrie of Surrey had walked away from nearby Vancouver General Hospital where she was a patient.

Tracy Ann Guthrie
Tracy Ann Guthrie

Guthrie was last seen at VGH on Saturday night. She had walked away wearing green hospital pants, a beige T-shirt and socks.

Fanning says the hospital has assured police the woman was not a health risk.

Her body was spotted by a passer-by in the small park in front of city hall at about 9:30 Monday morning. Police have not disclosed the cause of death.

Police are still looking for the man who made a 911 call from a pay phone on Saturday night regarding a possible sexual assault in the same area where the body was found.

Fanning says major crime investigators are still asking women to be vigilant in the city hall area.

"There's a good possibility that this is a random attack. So that's why we put the alert out yesterday, that a woman's been murdered, and that there's a possibility that it could be a random attack.

"The responsible thing to do, the only thing to do, is to put the alert out that it could be a random attack."