TENINO, Wash. -- Thurston County sheriff's deputies say a dead woman was found in the passenger seat of a pickup truck that was pulled over near Tenino.
Chief Criminal Deputy Jim Chamberlain said authorities have not yet identified the woman, but the case is being investigated as a homicide.
Police were alerted to the death when a citizen flagged down a deputy about 8 p.m. Sunday and said he thought he saw a man loading a body into a pickup truck.
The deputy spotted the truck a short time later and stopped the driver near Tenino Elementary School.
Chamberlain said the man admitted to the deputy he had a body in his pickup and said he was trying to save the family the cost of a funeral.
An autopsy will be performed to determine how the woman died, but investigators said there were signs of "homicidal violence."
The driver, identified as 26-year-old Bernard K. Howell, of Tenino, was booked into the Thurston County Jail for investigation of second-degree murder and first-degree theft.
Truck driven by Bernard Howell
Chamberlain said the victim may have been in the area of Highway 507 and Mull Road on the Chehalis Western Trial when she was attacked, but detectives are still trying to determine where she was killed.
A vehicle found in the area belongs to a Yelm woman who has not been seen since Sunday morning, but Chamberlain said investigators don't know for sure if that is the same person found dead in the truck.
Officials also said they are looking into whether Howell may be connected to the disappearance Nancy Moyer, who vanished from Tenino last year.
The 36-year-old mother of two was last seen in March 2009. Her front door was found open, with all her belongings still inside and her car was in the driveway.
Detectives say they have nothing at this point linking Howell to the case, but they are not ruling anything out and plan to ask him about Moyer.
Investigators have released a photo of the truck Howell was driving and are asking anyone who saw this truck in the Tenino area on Sunday is asked to give the Thurston County Sheriff's office a call.
Howell is expected to make his first court appearance Monday afternoon.
Howell's truck