Body in Towed Car Found Three Days Later

Body in towed car: The body of a 62-year-old woman was discovered in her car after it was towed by police from the crash site.
Body in Towed Car Found Three Days Later
Jack Phillips
4/2/2013
Updated:
4/3/2013

The body of a North Carolina woman who disappeared was found inside a wrecked vehicle, three days after a state trooper ordered that it should be towed away from the crash site.

Relatives of Carolyn Ann Watkins told WRAL television that her 2000 Pontiac Sunfire was found Friday a ditch near Swift Creek Road, around 4 miles south of Smithfield.  

However, they said that police did not say Watkins’ body was inside. According to a police report, “no driver (was) at the scene of this collision.”

“They were looking for her pocketbook and the keys, and when they started searching, that’s when they found the body in the car,” son Algernon Parker told the station.

The highway patrol did not elaborate as to why Watkins’ body wasn’t seen in the car earlier.

“First and foremost, we offer our most sincere condolences to Carolyn Watkins’ family,“ Commissioner Frank Perry said in a statement. ”Our main concern is to conduct a thorough and professional investigation so we can determine exactly what happened.”

Parker believes that Watkins may have still been alive when Highway Patrol Trooper Marlon Williams discovered her 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, a 9-year veteran of the Highway Patrol, has been placed on paid administrative duty pending the outcome of an internal review that will be conducted with help from the State Bureau Investigation. The patrol refused to release any further information about the incident.

“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 who answered the phone at Dustin’s Towing and Recovery in Willow Springs said the highway patrol asked him not to talk about the incident

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 

Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter with 15 years experience who started as a local New York City reporter. Having joined The Epoch Times' news team in 2009, Jack was born and raised near Modesto in California's Central Valley. Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/jackphillips5
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