Alabama Woman Found Dead 12 Days After Getting Trapped In Police Van

An officer in Alabama found a woman’s body in a police van nearly two weeks after she went missing, authorities said.

Friends and family last heard from 29-year-old Christina Nance on Sept. 25 and reported her missing one week later, according to Huntsville Police Deputy Chief Dewayne McCarver.

On Oct. 7 — 12 days after Nance vanished — the officer noticed shoes next to the van located in a parking lot outside Huntsville Police Department headquarters and discovered Nance dead inside.

McCarver said city surveillance cameras showed who appeared to be Nance entering the parking lot around 12:30 p.m. on Sept. 25. For the next 10 minutes, he said, footage shows the woman wandering the lot, sitting on a police car and lying down in some bushes before climbing into the vehicle through an unlocked rear door.

According to city officials, movement inside the van — last used in March — was detected through Sept. 28.

The vehicle did not have interior handles in the back since it was at one time used to transport inmates, McCarver said, noting, “You cannot exit once you're inside.”

He added that leaving the van unlocked “shouldn’t have happened” and violated department policy.

An autopsy determined foul play or trauma were not contributing factors in how Nance died, Madison County Coroner Dr. Tyler Berryhill recently announced. An official cause of death is pending toxicology results and a forensic exam report.

Family is questioning the circumstance surrounding what happened and calling for further investigation into the matter. “We certainly have worries,” Nance’s cousin, Frank Matthews, told Newsweek.