© ABC NewsCarolyn Ann Watkins body was found in her car days after it was towed from an accident scene, Johnson County, North Carolina.
Carolyn Ann Watkins, 62, was found dead inside her 2000 Pontiac at a towing lot on Monday.
"There was not much swelling and stuff like that, so we think she was living in that vehicle," Patricia Parker, Watkins' daughter-in-law, told ABCNews.com.
State Trooper M.D. Williams found Watkins' car Friday morning in a ditch near Smithfield, a town 30 miles southeast of Raleigh.
"Note: No driver at the scene of this collision," Williams wrote in a copy of the accident report obtained by ABCNews.com.
Dustin's Towing was called to the scene to remove the vehicle from the ditch and keep it for storage.
Parker said the family was never notified about the crash and contacted the Smithfield Police Department on Monday when Watkins did not show up for work.
The grandmother of four was found dead inside her car at the tow yard later that day, Parker said.
The Department of Public Safety said Trooper Williams, a nine-year veteran of the force, has been placed on paid administrative duty while the department conducts an investigation.
"At this early stage, our main concern is to conduct a thorough and professional investigation so we can determine exactly what happened," Frank Perry, Department of Public Safety commissioner, said in a statement.
Dustin's Towing declined to comment on the case and referred all questions to the Department of Public Safety.
Parker said an autopsy is pending on Watkins' body and the family hopes to find out how long she was alive after her wreck.
"She was an all-around nice person," Parker said. "The way that they left her in that car, nobody should have to go through that."
Every traffic fatality is a tragedy, but the wailing family seems a bit stupid.
"There was not much swelling and stuff like that, so we think she was living in that vehicle," said her daughter in law.
It's much more likely that the driver's body didn't have more swelling and obvious injuries because the woman died quickly if not instantly during the crash.
The state trooper who came across the accident scene didn't see the driver, which means she wasn't wearing a seat belt during the accident. Looking at the photo, you can see tire marks showing that the car went off the right side of the road into the ditch, where it came to a sudden stop. If not seat belted, the driver in the left front seat would have been thrown violently up and to the right, and probably was killed instantly by a broken neck or major head injuries.
The family wants to win a lawsuit but likely deserves to receive nothing.