The body of a missing California woman has been found inside her car in the parking lot of a Walmart store -- months after she had died, police said.

Lauren Jessie, 22, went missing on November 13, shortly after she left a drug rehabilitation center.

Employees at a Walmart store in the town of Salinas, in northern California, discovered her badly decomposed body inside her car last week.

Local media quoted her sister as saying a suicide note and a drug needle were found inside the vehicle.

Police said Jessie's car had tinted windows and a sunshade on the dashboard, making it difficult to see inside.

The local KSBW television station said Walmart's security footage only went back 60 days, but video from December showed the car parked in the same spot.