MALHEUR COUNTY, Ore. — Law enforcement is investigating after the body of a woman was found beneath her car in a rural area of Malheur County Tuesday night.
Investigators say they are not quite sure what led up to the death of the victim, identified as 58-year-old Marcelina Flores Piedra, a longtime resident of Vale.
According to Malheur County District Attorney David Goldthorpe, the sheriff's office received a call about a possible car crash at 8 p.m. Tuesday at the intersection of Clark Boulevard and Onion Avenue.
When deputies arrived, they could see that the car was off the road, and that someone was trapped underneath it. Deputies attempted to revive Flores, but she died at the scene.
Goldthorpe said Flores had been hit by the car, and that she appears to have died from those injuries, although an autopsy has not yet been completed. The victim was beneath the passenger side of the car, he said.
Investigators determined that Flores had been hit a short amount of time before the deputies arrived.
The vehicle is registered to Flores and her husband. The husband, a long-haul trucker, was out of state at the time, and is headed back to the area now, according to Goldthorpe.
It's unclear whether anyone else was in the car before Flores was struck. Goldthorpe said the death is considered "unexplained, leaning toward suspicious."
"It doesn't really look like a pure accident at this point," he said.
Investigators are continuing to examine the car for evidence. Law enforcement has asked anyone who knows what Flores might have been doing that day, or who she might have been with, to come forward.
Those with information are urged to contact the Malheur County Sheriff's Office.
