Firefighters discover woman's body on fire near retention pond

PASADENA, TX (KTRK) -- Pasadena police are investigating after finding a woman's body on fire near a retention pond.

Firefighters got a call about a grass fire on Olsen near Crestelea around 5:13am Monday. When crews arrived, they discovered it was a body on fire.

"Oh man that's scary. I'm really concerned now," said nearby resident Claudia Espinosa.

Espinosa and her neighbors woke up this morning to find crime scene tape blocking off a field near her home.

"It's so unexpected," she said. "It's so quiet here."

Firefighters and homicide investigators are combing the area after Pasadena police got a 911 call about what a neighbor thought was a grass fire but when fire crews arrived they found something else.

"(It was) a body in a field that had been ignited and was burning," said Vance Mitchell with the Pasadena Police Department.

Police say the victim is a woman but what they are now trying to figure out is how she died, who dumped her body and who set her on fire.

"I'm scared that it's that is somebody from the neighborhood because we're a pretty close neighborhood. I keep pretty close communication with my neighbors so that's kind of scary," said Espinosa.

An investigation is underway.