Two bodies have been found in the sea around 45 miles apart in the space of a week.
Detectives are working to identify the man, who is suspected to have fallen from a cruise ship in the English Channel, and the elderly woman.
The man's decomposed body washed up on a beach near Littlehampton, West Sussex, earlier this week.
An elderly woman decked out in active wear believed to be aged between 60 and 70 was found in the sea on Tuesday.
The deaths are not believed to be connected but they were both found in the sea.
The woman was washed up on Eastbourne beach, East Sussex, on Tuesday morning in the Groyne area directly in front of the Beach Deck restaurant on the Royal Parade.
It is thought she had only recently entered the water.
Metropolitan Police are trying to see whether the woman was a registered missing person from Edgware in west London.
While it remains unclear how the women came to be in the water, no suspicious circumstances were identified.
She has been described as approximately 5ft tall, petite and with short, white hair.
When she was found, she was wearing dark grey Mountain Warehouse hike trousers in a size 6, brown fleece-like under trousers, a beige vest top, a yellow vest top with three little patterns on each side below the strap and a beige H&M long-sleeved vest.
She also had a thin Under Armour black, long-sleeved hooded top, a grey Columbia fleece and a dark blue Mountain Warehouse jacket worn over them all.
Police found a purple and grey Merrel walking shoe in a size 6 nearby, which could also be linked to her.
Sussex Police are appealing for anyone with information on the identity of the woman to get in contact quoting serial 154 of 14/01.
