Decomposed body found at hospital may be Cut Off woman

Law enforcement officials suspect a body found at a Jefferson Parish hospital Thursday morning may be that of a missing Cut Off woman.

A maintenance worker found the body inside a Chrysler PT Cruiser as he was cleaning the third floor of Ochsner Medical Center’s parking garage, authorities reported.

“It appeared as though she had been dead for quite some time,” said Col. John Fortunato, spokesman for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office. His office was notified about 10 a.m. Thursday, he said.

On Nov. 17th, a car matching the description of the vehicle found at the Metairie hospital was first reported missing in Lafourche Parish, according to Larry Weidel, spokesman for the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office.

“We reported the woman missing and put her on the NCIC,” he said, referring to the National Crime Information Center’s database. The computerized system indexes criminal justice information, including missing person reports, across the nation.

“That’s how when Jefferson Parish discovered the body in the vehicle they checked it out and found out there was a missing person’s report and they called us,” Weidel said.

Detectives with the LPSO and JPSO are working in conjunction on the case, he said.

An autopsy was performed Friday morning by the Jefferson Parish Coroner’s Office, Weidel said. The preliminary results showed no indication of trauma or foul-play, he noted.

A toxicology report is pending, which should determine the exact cause of the woman’s death, Weidel said. “I think the body had been in the car for a couple of weeks. It was pretty badly decomposed.”

LPSO detectives have provided the coroner’s office with dental records and X-rays to be used to confirm the woman’s identity, he said.

Investigators said it appears the car had been sitting in the parking lot for quite some.