Police: Body found in car, woman

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. - Authorities are conducting additional tests on the body of a woman found inside a barrel in a car before ruling her death a homicide or not.

The autopsy completed Wednesday was not definitive, and investigators now are awaiting toxicology results and other tests, according to the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner's Office. The testing often takes weeks.

Police found the woman's body tucked into a cardboard barrel in the back seat of a Kia Spectra parked downtown Tuesday evening. The body was not dismembered.

The suspicious car was first seen by a Delray Beach woman who noticed a strong smell around it. Lauren Floyd, 35, called police, who found the bloody body inside.

Floyd was parked about a foot away from the silver sedan as she waited for her husband to pick up pizza from the Mellow Mushroom restaurant on Federal Highway, just south of Atlantic Avenue in the heart of downtown Delray Beach. In the five minutes he was gone, Floyd said, she saw hundreds of flies inside and around the silver car next to her.

Floyd said she also noticed what looked like a water heater wrapped in carpeting in the back seat. It was unusual enough for her to alert police at 6:33 p.m., she said.

The body had been inside the car since at least noon Tuesday, police spokesman Jeff Messer said. The car had Florida tags, according to a police report, and is registered to Doris Lopez, 48, of West Palm Beach. Police declined to say if it was stolen.

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