Santa Rosa police announced last night that the body of missing second-year doctoral student in electrical engineering Mengyao “May” Zhou was found in the trunk of her car. Zhou had been missing since Saturday when she left her residence in Rains House to run errands.

Speaking to reporters at a 5 p.m. press conference, authorities did not release the cause of death, but they said there were no indications of foul play. Items in the trunk indicate Zhou may have committed suicide, reports said, and the officer who discovered the car noted that the car appeared to “have been parked there several days.”

“We found some things in the car that were consistent with suicide,” Santa Rosa police Sgt. Lisa Banayat told the San Jose Mercury News, adding that police “did not find anything consistent with foul play.”

Authorities declined to comment on the condition of the body. A final determination for cause of death will not be available until the investigation has been completed by all involved agencies, including the Sonoma County Coroner’s Office.

An autopsy is scheduled for 9 a.m. today, Sgt. Mitch Mana, a spokesman for the Sonoma County coroner’s office, told the Mercury News.

Police said they have yet to determine the events leading up to Zhou’s death.

They did say, however, that the trunk and the doors of the car were locked and did not appear to have been tampered with, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

“We don’t know what in her life led her to this,” Banayat told The Chronicle. “We’re not ruling out anything.”

“It’s hard to know,” the woman’s father, Yitong Zhou, told the Mercury News. “I can’t think or talk now.”

Yesterday, he announced a $25,000 reward for information about his daughter’s whereabouts.

Her father said that she seemed to enjoy herself and was happy at Stanford.

Stress, he added, “is not an issue.” May had just passed demanding qualifying exams, her father said.

Zhou’s silver Toyota Corolla was found in the parking lot of the planetarium of Santa Rosa Junior College Thursday morning. Police had waited to see if anyone would return to it before towing the car, whereupon they discovered the body.

Calls to the Stanford University Department of Public Safety (DPS) were not returned by press time.

Zhou, 23, was last seen leaving campus at 10:30 a.m. Saturday morning. Since then, she left no cell phone records, bank statements or emails for police to trace.

A police dog had tracked Zhou’s scent to the Escondido Village parking lot where she usually parked her car. But the scent ended at the street outside the lot, police told the MercuryNews.

Greg Boardman, vice provost for student affairs, issued a statement Thursday afternoon confirming that Stanford police had been notified of “significant developments” regarding Zhou, and he deferred questions to representatives of the Santa Rosa Police Department.

“We continue to offer our full support and prayers to the Zhou family,” Boardman said.