Homicide and suspicious death in Central Fresno

Detectives were out all day Saturday starting at about 2 a.m.

That's when they found someone lying on Blackstone and Saginaw. Investigators say the person was the victim of a homicide.

Then, around 7 a.m a passer-by discovered a man floating in the canal near Fedora and Glenn.

Detectives from the Fresno Police Department spent Saturday collecting evidence near the corner of Blackstone and Saginaw in Central Fresno.

One of the places they focused was at this car wash where blood was discovered on several areas of the surrounding fence.

Employees say people who live in the area told them two people were seen fighting on the corner. One of them died on Blackstone. And the other person involved may have hopped this fence to get away.

"Well, when I got here to work. I got here right at eight, and the street was blocked off from that corner to that corner. The cops were still there and I had to drive over the median to get in," Ollie Martin said.

Then, around 7 a.m., less than a mile away, someone walking along this canal called police about a man's body floating in the water.

Deanna Henry lives along the canal. She was awoken by officers knocking on her door.

"I got woke up at 7:45 by Fresno PD wanting to use our chair to rope off a crime scene. They said there was a body in the canal, floating down and we came out here to look," Henry said.

Henry says she heard what sounded like gunshots in the area the night before.

Another neighbor, Bernie Ferris, didn't hear any shots.

Instead, he believes the man's body may be related to a loud party at a nearby apartment complex.

"There was a pretty good party going on over there, late. Didn't really her any raucous, no gun shots, but who's to say?" Bernie Ferris said.

Police still don't know how the man in the canal died.

As for the other man's death, that homicide marks the seventh one in Fresno so far, this year.