A highly-decomposed body of an unidentified woman was found inside a car parked in a workshop at Venkatachalapuram under Subramaniyapuram police station limits in Madurai City on Saturday (May 30, 2026) night.

A case of suspicious death has been registered and the body was taken to the Government Rajaji Hospital for post-mortem.

The police said that the car had been parked in the workshop since May 21. When foul smell came from the car, the police were alerted on Saturday night. When the police opened the door of the car, that was not left locked, they found the decomposed body of a woman lying face down in the rear seat. Forensic experts scanned the vehicle.

The police said that a man from Ramanathapuram had some technical issues with a used car, he had bought, and left it in the workshop on May 21. Police said that the doors of all the cars found in the workshop were left unlocked.

The police suspect that the deceased could be a mentally unsound woman, who was seen roaming around the area. The police are verifying whether any missing woman case matched with the profile of the deceased.

It is unclear whether the deceased got into the car on her own and got trapped inside it and died due to suffocation. The police have also not ruled out the possibility of any foul play.

“Since the body is in a highly-decomposed state, only post-mortem report can reveal the cause of the death,” a police officer said.