Body Of Missing Florida Grandmother Found In Vehicle Following Hurricane Irma

A Florida grandmother, who had been reported missing since December, was found dead in her car Saturday when canals were drained to ease Hurricane Irma flooding, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.

Loraine "Lori" Feliciano-Pino, 47, was last seen leaving her home in Boca Raton a week before Christmas and before she was set to take a family trip, according to the Palm Beach Post. According to local officials, her 2011 Toyota RAV4 SUV and five other vehicles were uncovered in the Boca Rio canal, which is located near her home.

“I feel like years would have went by if it weren’t for something horrible like the hurricane to happen because we would never have found her,” Rosannie Feliciano, the sister of Feliciano-Pino, told the Palm Beach Post. “Out of something tragic, something good. Now we can start to heal and grieve.”

Feliciano said she had repeatedly told investigators to search for Feliciano-Pino in the Boca Rio canal and became frustrated with investigators when they instead searched the Loxahatchee Canal, according to the Sun-Sentinel.

"My entire world came crashing down over the weekend," Feliciano-Pino’s daughter Kailanni Lorea Lamy wrote on Facebook. "Although it brings some closure after nine excruciating months, nothing could have prepared me for this news. My mom was finally found but unfortunately, it wasn’t the result I was praying for."

In January, the Palm Beach Post reported that Feliciano-Pino’s son claimed his mother was in good spirits two days prior to her disappearance.

Feliciano-Pino was a mother of two and grandmother of two.

The Sun Sentinel and the Palm Beach Post cited several other incidents in which bodies had been found in south Florida canals, including two teens who were discovered in 2015 that went missing in 1969. In 1997, a van was found that had the remains of five teens who had been missing for 18 years.