The body that was found inside a car pulled from a canal in Sunrise belonged to a woman who was reported missing earlier this month, friends said Tuesday.
Marimar Cora, 41, was last seen on Saturday, Aug. 3.
"She was a very lively, happy, energetic person. She was fun to be around," said Cora's boss, Tracy Newmark. "She made customers happy. She was a bartender. She was creative. She was proud of what she did."
Cora worked as a bartender at the restaurant Tin Fish in Sunrise, where she just started a few weeks ago.
The Hurricane season is on. Our meteorologists are ready. Sign up for the NBC 6 Weather newsletter to get the latest forecast in your inbox.
Newmark said Cora worked that Saturday and then hung out after she got off at another restaurant.
Cora was supposed to come in to work the next day.
"She didn’t show and didn’t call," Newmark said. "I called and no one answered. I text her, no response."
Local
Police haven't released any information, but Cora’s friends confirmed to NBC6 that her body was found in a black Honda pulled from a canal Tuesday afternoon.
The canal sits behind a shopping plaza on North University Drive and Sunrise Lakes Boulevard, near the restaurant where Newmark said she hung out that night.
Since Cora's disappearance, family members posted flyers on social media reporting her missing.
Friends said that Cora was studying cosmetology. A mannequin head was found near the area of the canal where the car was pulled out.
Tuesday’s grim discovery is the latest in a recent string of cars being found in canals with human remains inside.
On Sunday, divers found the skeletal remains of who is believed to be a mother and daughter inside a car found in a canal 50 years after they disappeared.
Hours after that, a volunteer dive team found a Buick submerged in a nearby lake with the remains of an 83-year-old man who was reported missing in 2004.
