A woman's daughter was found dead after a car crash. But she'd died long before, police say.

A 37-year-old mother in the US has been charged after allegedly driving around with her 11-year-old daughter’s dead body hidden in boot of the car for two days.

Erica Newsome from Jacksonville, Florida, was driving to the home her daughter’s father in Buffalo, New York, when she struck a guardrail on a highway in West Virginia, local publication The Pocahontas Times reports.

Passersby said they saw Newsome get out of the car after the accident, remove a body from the back of the car, and drag it over the embankment.

The body was identified as Newsome’s 11-year-old daughter, Kaye-lea Plummer, who police say did not die from the car accident.

The mother has since been charged with concealing a body.

Erica Newsome, 37, was charged with concealment of a deceased body, according to reports.https://t.co/oNv7V3iWqV pic.twitter.com/y9r9sXpCjB

— First Coast News (@FCN2go) August 8, 2017

“It was obvious that the 11-year-old did not die from injuries from the accident,” State Police Sergeant Herby Barlow told The Pocahontas Times. “Her injuries were non-motor vehicle injuries.”

Newsome was reportedly jailed on US$50,000 bail and investigators are searching for more information, believing the girl’s death occurred in Jacksonville, Florida.

Kaye-lea Plummer’s father has also spoken to media, telling WJXT4 television that he hadn’t seen his estranged wife and daughter – only spoke to them on the phone – since they moved to Jacksonville in 2014.

“We didn’t always agree on everything, but she was a great mother. I don’t know how this could have happened,” Plummer said. “Something is very, very wrong. She needs help. She really needs help.”