File photoPolice discovered a dead woman parked in her car at Bonita Lakes Monday night and suspect she died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. 

Meridian police and the Lauderdale County coroner said they found the body of a woman parked in her car Monday at Bonita Lakes park. 

Both agencies said they suspect the woman died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Meridian Police Sgt. Dareall Thompson said police don’t suspect foul play but would investigate her death.

“We’ll wait until the autopsy report comes back and go through the procedures,” Thompson said. 

Coroner Clayton Cobler said he estimated the time of death to be 1 p.m. Monday but the woman, in her 30s, wasn’t discovered until almost 11 p.m. Monday.

“The car was running, the windows were halfway down and the AC was on,” Cobler said, estimating at least eight hours before the woman was discovered.

Cobler said a crime lab analysis, performed in Pearl with the autopsy, would calculate the trajectory of the bullet to determine how the woman died. 

Thompson said an officer doing his nightly routine and closing the park found the woman. 

“When he was making his rounds he noticed a car was running and checked,” Thompson said. “That’s when he noticed a female in the vehicle.”

Cobler and Thompson said the woman suffered a gunshot wound to the chest and the weapon was in the car.

Thompson said they used a gunshot residue kit and turned the results over to the crime lab, anticipating those results in at least a month’s time.