The body of a young woman was discovered in a car eight days after it had been towed from an apartment complex in Brooklyn Park to an impound lot in Columbia Heights, police said Friday.

Authorities said that the woman has not been positively identified but that they believe she was an 18-year-old from St. Paul. Meanwhile, social media teemed with comments about an 18-year-old St. Paul woman who had been reported missing since Feb. 11. Two relatives told the Star Tribune that the missing woman's parents were told Thursday that her car had been located at an impound lot in Columbia Heights. Friends of the woman said Friday that the family posted her passing on a private Facebook page. St. Paul police declined to comment, saying only that they are working with Anoka County authorities. They did confirm that they had a missing person's report for an 18-year-old woman.The body was discovered Thursday at the lot in the 3800 block of Central Avenue NE., where the car had been towed Feb. 13 by a company that contracts with the apartment complex for removal of unauthorized vehicles, said Anoka County Sheriff's Cmdr. Paul Sommer.

In a statement, Sommer said the body "had been concealed inside the passenger compartment." He did not say how it had been kept from view.

Towing personnel "did not see a body in the vehicle at the time, and it is not the practice of private towing companies to do any sort of vehicle inventory," Sommer's statement said.Authorities did not say where in Brooklyn Park the apartment complex is located.

No other details were being released, Sommer said, in order "to protect the integrity of the very preliminary investigation." It is being conducted by police in Brooklyn Park, Columbia Heights and St. Paul, as well as by members of the Anoka County Sheriff's Office and the medical examiner's office. Friends said the missing woman was a 2012 graduate of Highland Park High School in St. Paul. City officials confirmed she worked parts of 2009 and 2010 for the Parks and Recreation Department.

Staff writer Paul Walsh contributed to this report.

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