Hayward are conducting a death investigation as a result of the discovery of what appear to be human bones on the city's rocky shoreline.
However, Capt. Darryl McAllister said it's too early to tell whether the remains are the result of an accident, homicide, suicide or even of natural causes.
"It would be premature to speculate," he said.
KSBW in Salinas reported that the Salinas Police Department is assisting in the investigation.
The remains were discovered across the Bay from where the car of Ryann Bunnell Crow, a missing Prunedale woman, was found in February.
Sources also told KSBW that the state of the decomposition of the remains indicate the victim died around the same time Crow disappeared.
Alameda Search and Rescue teams sent out 10 dive members and three cadaver dogs to search an ecological area after a torso, leg and arm were found scattered between the Dumbarton and San Mateo bridges. Authorities, including officers from the Salinas Police Department, set up a command post Friday on Veasy Street in Union City.
Crow was last seen alive on January 30. Her husband, Jesse John Crow, has been charged with her murder.
Investigators said they will conduct a DNA test on the bones, but that results may take a few months.
Jesse John Crow has pleaded not guilty to one count of murder. Last month, prosecutors said they may have evidence that Crow killed for money, which could make him eligible for the death penalty if convicted.
He is currently being held at the Monterey County Jail.
The bones were discovered Tuesday by a man who was looking for marine life on the shoreline at the southwest edge of Hayward's city limits, south of the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge.
But the man didn't contact police right away, McAllister said. Instead, the man sent an email to the Police Department's general inbox late Wednesday, which meant that police weren't able to begin searching the area until Thursday morning, he said.
Searches Thursday and Friday yielded the recovery of bones that were scattered over 200 to 300 yards of shoreline. The bones appeared to be weathered and to have been scattered due to currents and tides, McAllister said.
He said police weren't immediately able to tell how long the bones were there and whether they were from a man or from a woman.
McAllister said police aren't releasing details as far as which bones from what parts of a human body were found, but together they consist of partial remains of what appears to be an adult man.
Divers from the Alameda County sheriff's office assisted the investigation by checking the underwater area of the shoreline for any other bones that might have been related to the find but didn't locate any.
McAllister said the Alameda County coroner now has the bones and will begin an examination to determine their origin. He said it's anticipated that it will take four to six weeks, or even longer, to make a determination.
In the meantime, Hayward police are reaching out to Bay Area jurisdictions with missing persons cases so the coroner can determine if the bones are connected to any of the cases, McAllister said.
He said along with Monterey County investigators, authorities are considering at least a half-dozen missing persons cases but it will be difficult to make any open case comparisons until the coroner makes a determination of sex, age or cause of death.
