Police on Monday were investigating the discovery of a human skeleton wrapped in a bed sheet inside a car submerged in a canal in Saraburi province.

The victim was believed to be Klinkaysorn Wongsing, a 36-year-old saleswoman who disappeared three years ago. The wrapped skeleton was found on the back seat of her Bangkok-registered white Nissan Pulsar car in Chai Nat-Pasak irrigation canal in tambon Nong Pong of Nong Don district, Saraburi.

The overturned car became visible after the water level in the canal dropped. The car was filled with mud, its roof caved in and its front left window broken. Officials took over three hours to pull the vehicle out of the canal.

Lanthom Wongsing, 56 of Lop Buri, told police that the dead woman was her daughter Klinkaysorn, who had worked as a fertiliser saleswoman and run a steak shop and Thai costume rental shop in Phra Phutthabat district of Saraburi. The woman and the car had disappeared in November 2016.

Saraburi police believed the woman was murdered because the body was wrapped in a bed sheet. Local residents told police that she had been in a relationship with a fertiliser producer in Phra Phutthabat after her previous marriage ended.

Police were examining the body and other items found in the car, but said the task was difficult after the evidence was buried in mud for three years.