A suspicious death in Surrey Monday morning is set to bring the city’s annual homicide count to an all-time high, a grim record Mayor Dianne Watts has vowed to address with a new task force.

Mounties discovered the deceased at a home in the 12000-block of 99 Avenue shortly after 8 a.m., while responding to a 911 call reporting a disturbance.

Few details have been confirmed but the death has been deemed suspicious and the case has been handed over to the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team.

“We can confirm that the victim is an adult male,” Sgt. Jennifer Pound told reporters. “We’re looking to speak with any witnesses who might have any information about what took place.”

No arrests have been made. Pound said several people were found on the property and have been cooperating with investigators.

Police do not believe the victim, whose identity has not been released, lived at the home.

If confirmed to be a homicide, the death would bring Surrey’s 2013 toll up to a record 22, far surpassing Vancouver’s year-to-date total of five.

Vancouver has roughly 100,000 more residents than Surrey, and the cities’ homicides per 100,000 people currently stand at 0.86 and 4.38, respectively.

Surrey’s Mayor promised to look into the spike with a homicide task force, aided by criminologist Dr. Irwin Cohen, which will work to identify drug houses in the city and assess the use of police resources and of closed-circuit cameras.

The task force will also look into a strange phenomenon that has seen homicide rates rise sharply every four years in the city, Watts said.

“Last year we had nine,” she told reporters. “I don’t know what’s happening. Is there something that’s triggering this spike?”

Surrey saw 10 homicides in 2004 followed by 21 in 2005. The rate dipped again, slowly climbing to 16 in 2008 before jumping again to 20 in 2009.

“We’ve got some measures in place that have been very, very successful. We want to review them, make sure that they’re still fresh, they’re still doing what we need them to do,” Watts said.

The majority of murders have been linked to drugs and crime, she added.

Anyone with information on the latest suspicious death is asked to call the IHIT tip line at 1-877-551-IHIT or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.

With a report from CTV British Columbia’s St. John Alexander