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Body Found Inside Towed Car Near Downtown Mpls.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Authorities are investigating after a body was discovered inside a trunk of a car at a tow lot near downtown Minneapolis Monday morning.

According to the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office, deputies responded at around 11 a.m. to a report of a deceased person found inside a vehicle at Wreckers Services Inc., which is located at 200 East Lyndale Ave. N.

After noticing an odor, employees of the wrecker service opened the trunk of the four-door passenger car and discovered the deceased person inside.

Mark Anderson owns Wrecker Services and said police told him the body belonged to a young woman.

"We called police right away and they confirmed that it was a young lady tied and bound in the truck of a car," Anderson said.

NewsRadio 830 WCCO's Susie Jones Reports

Body Found

Anderson said it appears there was some sort of wound to the chest of the body.

According to the owner of Wrecker Services the car was towed from the Rainbow Foods parking lot in Brooklyn Park on April 11th. The car was scheduled to become property of the impound lot on May 30, but employees trying to make keys for the car noticed the smell and made the discovery.

The identity of the woman is not known, but indications suggest it is not the body of Mandy Matula, an Eden Prairie woman who's been missing since early this month.

The owner of the car is from St. Paul. When WCCO found her at home, she was shocked to hear the car she sold back in January is now at the center of a homicide investigation.

She says she sold the car for $650 and assumed the new owners would change the title. All she could say is she sold the car to two men who claimed they owned a repair shop. One of the men told her he was buying the car for his girlfriend.

The death is being investigated as a possible homicide.

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