Body of woman missing in Ariz. found in delivery truck at Iowa distribution center

The body of a woman reported missing in Arizona was found in a delivery truck in Iowa, police said.

Sheila Kay Ross, 47, was reported missing Saturday in Yuma, Ariz., by her husband, said Officer Clint Norred, a Yuma police spokesman.

A dockworker at the Hy-Vee grocery store distribution center near Des Moines found her body Tuesday in the back of a truck that was delivering lettuce, said Chris Friesleben, a Hy-Vee spokeswoman.

Ross was accidentally pinned inside the truck while it was being loaded, said Dr. John Kraemer of the Iowa medical examiner's office.

An autopsy concluded that she died of compressional asphyxiation, Kraemer said.

The Rosses had gone to a Dole Food plant in Yuma on Saturday night to pick up supplies, Norred said. Sheila Ross got out of the truck to get paperwork but never returned, he said.

Yuma police were called to search the area but turned up nothing, Norred said.

Marty Ordman, a spokesman for the California-based Dole Food Co., said the company was notified of the incident and was waiting for more information from authorities in Yuma and Iowa.

A telephone message left for officials at R&J trucking was not immediately returned.

Friesleben said the lettuce in the truck was destroyed.