Woman in Her 40s Found Dead in Patrol Car Backseat, Suspected of Hyperthermia

The police have given a preliminary verbal opinion that the missing woman, who was found dead inside a police patrol car, may have died from hyperthermia.

On the 19th, Hadong Police Station in South Gyeongsang Province announced the initial autopsy results of the body of a woman in her 40s, identified as A, who was found dead that morning, stating that she may have died from hyperthermia or related causes.

According to the police, A was discovered dead in the back seat of a patrol car parked at the Jingyo Police Substation of Hadong Police Station around 2 p.m. on the 17th.

CCTV footage captured A walking alone toward the parked vehicle at the substation around 2 a.m. the previous night.

The police believe that A opened the patrol car door and got inside. At the time, the patrol car was not locked.

The police had no knowledge that A had entered the patrol car, as there had been no patrol car dispatches until around 2 p.m. on the day she was found.

Around 11 a.m. that day, after receiving a missing person report from A's family stating she had not returned home, officers opened the patrol car door to respond and found A inside.

The police explained that there were no visible external injuries on A when she was found.

Typically, patrol cars do not have door handles in the back seat to prevent suspects from escaping during transport, so the door cannot be opened from the inside.

There is also a safety partition between the front and back seats, making it impossible to move to the front seat and open the door from there.

Hadong has been under a heat wave warning since last month due to ongoing extreme heat. The temperature in Hadong was recorded at 34 degrees Celsius around 2 p.m. on the 17th, when A was found dead.

It is therefore presumed that A, who was trapped inside the car for an extended period, died from hyperthermia or related causes.

A police official stated, "We plan to conduct a detailed examination to determine the exact cause of A's death," adding, "The results of the detailed autopsy are expected to be available in about a month."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.