Missing Iowa woman found dead in vacant lot in Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS - A Minnesota medical examiner has identified the body of a missing Iowa woman found in a rural area near Minneapolis over the weekend.

The Hennepin County medical examiner's office identified the body as that of 29-year-old Carrie Elaine Olson of Davenport, Iowa. Olson was reported missing in Davenport over three months ago, according to the Quad-City Times. Her body was found Saturday evening in a vacant lot near Hastings, Minn., about 30 miles southeast of Minneapolis.

The Quad-City Times reports that Olson's body was discovered by the landowner and appeared to have been in the lot for less than 36 hours, according to a posting on the Facebook page of the Dakota County Sheriff's Department.

Olson was last seen at a 7-Eleven in Davenport on Dec. 30, the paper reports. Police were notified of her absence and began their search after the woman failed to show up for work.

The paper reports that the search for Olson included a large viral campaign, with missing persons websites and Facebook pages dedicated to finding the missing woman. Dennis Harker, who created the "Quad-Cities Missing Persons Network" Facebook page after his own son went missing in September, said he had spoken with Olson's family after the news broke.

"They got the final word today and it reignited the feelings I had when my son was found," Harker, whose son's body was recovered in the Mississippi River days after he went missing, told the Quad-City Times. "It's the finality of it all. It's over, and you just want to melt."

The medical examiner says the cause of Olson's death is pending further investigation.