Body in towed car: Carolina woman found

Body in towed car: Carolina woman

Body in towed car, A female person body of a missing North Carolina woman is said to be found inside of her wrecked car per The Associated Press on Tuesday, April 2, 2013. The problem here is the body was found three days after it was ordered by a state trooper to be towed away from the scene of the crash. That is the exact reason that "body in towed car" is now trending.

62-year-old Carolyn Ann Watkins of Clayton, NC, was reported missing by her son early on Monday, April 1, 2013, after she failed to show up for work.

An accident report was filed on Friday, March 29, 2013, by N.C. Highway Patrol Trooper Marlon Williams, and it showed that Watkins' crashed 2000 Pontiac was found earlier that morning. It was located in a deep ditch near Smithfield, about 30 miles southeast of Raleigh. Both air bags had been deployed.

Williams wrote in his accident report, "Note: No driver at the scene of this collision."

At that point, the patrolman had a local towing company move the vehicle to a lot for storage. It stayed there with the body of the Clayton woman inside until her body was discovered on Monday evening by a Smithfield police officer searching the vehicle for clues about her disappearance.

There is no immediate word on when Watkins died exactly. She was last seen alive sometime on Thursday, the day before her vehicle was found.

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Al Parker, Watkins' son, wondered if the life of his mother could have been saved if the trooper had noticed she was in the car.

"I'm thinking she could still have been alive," Parker said Tuesday. "How do you not look in the car? When you pulled the car out, how do you not see a body in the car?"

Williams is a nine-year veteran of the Highway Patrol and has been placed on paid administrative duty pending the outcome of an internal review. The review will be conducted with the assistance of the State Bureau Investigation. No further information was given by the patrol.

"We will release accurate information to the public as soon as available and appropriate," Public Safety Commissioner Frank Perry said in a brief written statement. "At this early stage, our main concern is to conduct a thorough and professional investigation so we can determine exactly what happened."

A man answering the phone at Dustin's Towing and Recovery said that the highway patrol advised and asked them not to talk about the incident.