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Police: Woman Found Dead, Underwear Removed Inside Rental Car

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — A woman's body has been found in the back seat of a rented vehicle in a Jefferson Park alley, police said Friday.

A car rental agency employee went to retrieve a car around 1 a.m. in the alley at Jefferson Boulevard and 12th Avenue, said Los Angeles police Sgt. Carlton Brown, watch commander at the Southwest Division.

According to Brown, the rental car company got an anonymous call saying they could find their rental car in the alley at Jefferson Boulevard and 12th Avenue.

"The personnel from the rental car company that that was unusual so he notified the police," said Brown. "We get there, and the officers do a closer inspection and determined that she was dead."

The car was described as a silver Suzuki, Brown said.

"The employee arrived at the alley at around 1 a.m. to find the deceased woman, in her mid 30s or early 40s, with her undergarments pulled down below her knees," Brown said.

There was no word yet on whether the woman was sexually assaulted, Brown said.

Police don't yet know the identity of the person who called the rental company; the name of the car rental customer or whether the car was late getting back to the company, Brown said.

LAPD homicide detectives were handling the investigation, he said.

Anyone with information on this apparent homicide was asked to call the LAPD's Southwest Division watch commander at (213) 485-2582.

(©2011 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)

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