http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/10/mummy/1">Calif. driver motored around for months with mummified passenger
A former real estate agent in Southern California drove around for several months with the mummified body of a homeless woman in the passenger seat, the Orange County Register reports. The driver told Costa Mesa police she was afraid to report the woman's death.
Police found the body Monday while answering a complaint of a blocked driveway. The transient, whom the 57-year-old driver had let sleep in her 1997 Mercury Marquis, had been dead between three and 10 months. An autopsy revealed no signs of foul play. Toxicology tests are pending.
Along with the body and a pile of clothes, officers found a box of baking soda in the car. "This person was somewhat used to the smell," a police sergeant said of the unidentified driver, who has fallen on hard financial times.
No charges have been filed but police are looking at possible health code violations for transporting a corpse. No word on whether the driver traveled in the car pool lane with the body.