Massachusetts authorities are investigating the death of a woman found unresponsive off a bike path in Springfield on Tuesday.

Springfield Police Department spokesperson Ryan Walsh said officers responded to reports of an unresponsive person near a bike path at the 1500 block of Hall of Fame Avenue.

Upon arrival, officers discovered a woman who was pronounced dead shortly after.

“The SPD Homicide Unit under the direction Captain Trent Duda is conducting an unattended death investigation in conjunction with the @HampdenDA Murder Unit, pending an autopsy by the Medical Examiner,” Walsh said.

Valentin noted that Springfield police have not yet determined whether the woman’s death was a homicide.

A woman was found dead near a Springfield, Massachusetts, bike path on April 22. (John Greim/LightRocket )

“I am curious about what was recovered around the body,” he said. “There might have been paraphernalia suggestive of activity that is deemphasizing homicide (perhaps incorrectly) to the investigators because that article is quite tepid. It is filled with very cautious language (surely taken right from police press releases), which might be intentional to not feed into what is now turning into intense scrutiny over every suspicious death in New England.”

At least four of the victims in these eight  cases — two in Connecticut, one in Rhode Island and now one in Massachusetts — have been identified as women. Police also believe the victim found in Killingly, Connecticut, was a woman in her 40s to 60s, though her identity has not been confirmed.

The New England Serial Killer Facebook group, which now has 65,300 members, has garnered more than 15,000 new members this month, as MassLive.com first reported.

Searches for “New England serial killer” on Google spiked around April 7, according to data from the search engine.