PARKERSBURG - The body of a 25-year-old woman was found in the trunk of a vehicle at the Seventh Street Car Wash Thursday night, police said.
Police identified the body as 25-year-old Brandy Marie Adams of Parkersburg.
Police responded to the car wash at 1957 Seventh St. at 8 p.m. concerning an unattended car in the washing bay, said Sgt. Greg Collins with the Parkersburg Police Department. When the officer popped the vehicle's trunk, he discovered the body, Collins said.
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Photo by Jeff Baughan
Members of the Parkersburg Crime Scene Unit inspect the trunk of a car at the Seventh Street Car Wash Thursday night after a body was discovered in it.
Adams, a Parkersburg South High School graduate who attended West Virginia University at Parkersburg at one time, had a 3-year-old daughter and worked as a food server, according to her Facebook page.
According to records, Adams has had several recent run-ins with law enforcement.
In November 2011 Adams was indicted for theft in Marietta. A month later she was in Wood County court entering a plea agreement for grand larceny.
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In February 2012, Adams was in Wetzel County court, sentenced to 1-10 years for grand larceny from Wal-Mart. In court, according to the Wetzel Chronicle, Adams admitted battling drug and alcohol problems and told the judge her crimes were committed with the intent to buy drugs.
She received a suspended sentence and one year of probation to run concurrently with a similar sentence in Wood County.
Adams' body was sent to Charleston for autopsy, Collins stated in a release.
Officials did not release information on the make or model of the vehicle. Police were not sure how long the vehicle had been in the car wash bay.
A person at the scene said the car appeared to be a dirty Pontiac of some type. The trunk of the vehicle was facing Seventh Street, the person said.
The vehicle was in the second to last vehicle bay on the right side of the car wash Thursday night. A crime scene investigation van and ambulance were being used to block the bay.
Collins said the Parkersburg Police Department, Wood County Sheriff's Department, the Parkersburg Violent Crime and Narcotics Task Force and Wood County Prosecutor's Office responded to the crime scene.
Wood County assistant coroner Curtis Thomas was called to the car wash scene.
Collins said several law enforcement agencies are working on the case.
Wood County Commissioner Steve Gainer said he has owned the car wash since about 1992 or 1993, when it was built. He was home when police called him to come to the business to provide electrical service.
Gainer said the car wash is open 24 hours a day. He said the car wash is self-serve, without a full-time attendant. Gainer and another person periodically check on the car wash, he said.
A resident of 16th Street said he didn't know anything about the incident until about 10 p.m.
"To think this happened here," he said. "It's sad."
The man, who did not want to be identified, said he had been worried about the recent criminal activity in his neighborhood, with the shootings on Lynn Street and murder several years ago of an elderly woman in Parkersburg.
