MILWAUKIE, Ore. -- A missing 68-year-old Clackamas woman was found dead in the trunk of her car in Milwaukie. On Monday, her death was ruled a homicide, sheriff's deputies said.
Merrilee Cooley, 68, was reported missing on Dec. 28, 2016, and her car was found Jan. 5 with a body in the trunk. The medical examiner confirmed that the body was Cooley.
A neighbor told KGW's Mike Benner that the car had been parked at the apartment complex for nearly a week.
The Clackamas County Sheriff's Office said keys to the car were found inside the vehicle.
The sheriff's office has not said whether they have a suspect. They also declined to release the manner of Cooley's death.
Cooley reported missing
The family of Merrilee Cooley said a friend went to check on her on Dec. 28 and found Cooley's Clackamas home unlocked and in disarray, with her purse emptied out, furniture turned over and one of her slippers outside. The friend said her car and car keys were also gone.
"It's totally not her at all," said Peggy Husman, a decades-long friend. "Somebody always knows if she'll be gone overnight. She contacts somebody; either the gal next door, the guy across the street, she calls me and tells me what she's going to do, something."
On Thursday night, Jensen said the house was not ransacked as initially reported.
"She tried to always be happy and outgoing no matter what was going on," said Cooley's neighbor, Paul Mitchell. "You could go and talk to her about your problems and she'd try to cheer you up. She was always there for you, if you needed anything you could ask her and she'd do her best to help you."
"She didn't have an enemy in the park so we assumed it was somebody outside," Mitchell said.
Cooley's son, Bryan Eilers, and his family visited his mother from Lebanon over the holidays, both on Christmas and the following day. He said his mother loves people, especially children, and they love her back.
"That’s why we’re trying to figure out why anybody would want to do anything to her or take advantage of her in any way or why she would end up missing, I don’t know," said Eilers.
Anyone with information about the case should call the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office at 503-655-8211 or 503-723-4949.