Body Found in Trunk of Car Bought at Auction: Police

[ad_1]

The body of a man was found in the trunk of an SUV bought at auction from a Washington state scrapyard, according to police.

Braven Auto and Metals workers discovered the body inside a 2002 Ford Explorer at the scrapyard in Lynwood on Thursday, August 4.

According to Fox12, the vehicle was meant to have been inspected by a third party before it arrived at the scrapyard, but it slipped by without being checked.

The discovery was made before the vehicle was set to be crushed and sold for scrap.

Stock image of police car
A file photo of a police car. A body was found in the trunk of an SUV sold at an auction.
Getty

Hundreds of thousands of people go missing in the U.S. each year, according to The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs).

NamUs also says that 4,400 unidentified bodies are recovered every 12 months.

In a Saturday, August 6, Facebook post, Braven Auto and Metals said: “We want to address a situation we are sure many of you have heard about. Yes, there was a body of a deceased man discovered in a vehicle once it arrived at our yard.

“This vehicle was purchased for auction, however, we do not have any other details but want to focus on the positive side of this and that is the fact that this man has been found and his family will know where he is and hopefully get some closure.

“We would also like to thank the Lake Stevens Police Department for their quick response to this situation.”

Fox12 added that witnesses didn’t know how long the man’s remains had been in the vehicle or how he died.

Braven HR director Michael Smith told the network: “I haven’t come across something like that before. So, I wasn’t sure what to think when my name hit the radio and I got called down there to take a look and see what was going on.”

Smith later added: “To me, it looked like he may have been staying in his vehicle. There was a sleeping bag.”

Lake Stevens police have launched an investigation to identify the man and determine how he died.

According to Fox12, the death doesn’t appear to have been the result of a homicide.

Newsweek has contacted the Lake Stevens Police Department for comment.

Bodies in Strange Places

There have been numerous occasions across the U.S. where human remains have been discovered in unusual places.

Earlier this week, the decomposing body of a woman was found in the garbage in Chicago. Firefighters in the city said they were alerted to a report of a body being found on the South Side.

When they arrived at 107th Street and Edbrooke Avenue they found a body and identified it as being a man in his 40s.

But it was later discovered the body was, in fact, that of a woman.

[ad_2]