The body of a missing 55-year-old woman was found this week in a vehicle that was flipped over and partially submerged in a creek in southwestern Washington, officials said.
Five days earlier, she had failed to return home after visiting an acquaintance.
On Wednesday, June 24, a deputy was flagged down on Delameter Road in Castle Rock, Wash., the Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. The deputy saw an overturned black car with its top in the Arkansas Creek and confirmed that a deceased person was inside.
After detectives arrived at the scene, they determined that the black Honda Accord left the road and went through a field before hitting an embankment and overturning in roughly three feet of water, authorities said.
“The driver and sole occupant was tentatively identified as missing person Lori Moore,” the sheriff’s office said.
The search for Moore began on Saturday, June 20, after she didn’t return home the night before from seeing an acquaintance in Castle Rock. She also missed a Father’s Day event hosted by her family.
Loved ones told investigators that she had a medical condition affecting her heart, the sheriff’s office said.
Detectives contacted the acquaintance on Sunday, June 21, and located footage of Moore leaving the address in Castle Rock that Friday, June 19, at 9:25 p.m. local time.
Six minutes later, Moore was traveling southbound on Interstate 5, according to cell phone records that showed her last known location.
But there was no further activity on her phone, credit cards or online accounts since Friday, officials said. Moore also failed to show up for work.
For days, there was no sign of the missing woman until the bystander spotted her vehicle in the creek on Wednesday.
Her presumed cause of death is freshwater drowning, a spokesperson for the Cowlitz County Coroner’s Office confirms to PEOPLE.
Autopsy results are pending, and no information was provided about what may have caused the crash.