Hoax posts circulating on Facebook about stabbed woman found in submerged vehicle

A number of Facebook posts claim to show a photo of an unidentified woman who was supposedly discovered with stab wounds in a submerged vehicle in the UK. But this is a hoax, and the posts share photos of unrelated incidents in the US.

One post shared in a community group for Tendring and Essex on 7 May says: “An unidentified woman was discovered in a submerged vehicle in #essex. The police urgently need help identifying a woman who was found with numerous stad [sic] wounds in her car along the canal last night. She is in critical condition and is missing her ID/driver's license, phone, and everything. Allow us to bump this post so it reaches her relatives. It takes only two seconds to share.”

It shares one photo of a woman in a hospital bed with breathing apparatus attached to her, and another that appears to show a car being pulled from a body of water while people look on.

Almost identical posts including the same photos appeared in other Facebook community groups at the same time, but instead claiming the woman had been found in Coventry and Bordon, in Hampshire.

But these posts are a hoax, and the photos do not show a woman discovered in a submerged vehicle in any part of the UK.

Using reverse image search, we found an article from August 2021 about hospital officials in the US trying to identify the woman in the photo, who was reportedly in a critical condition at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.

The other photo shows a separate incident in the US. It comes from reports of an incident in February 2025 where the body of a missing woman, Denise Cosme, was found in her car after it was located in a canal in West Palm Beach, Florida.

We could find no police or media reports of any such incidents happening in the named parts of the UK. West Midlands Police, who cover Coventry, and Essex Police confirmed that there had been no reports of a woman found with stab wounds in a submerged vehicle in their areas. We’ve contacted Hampshire Police and will update this article if we receive a response.

Moreover, these posts all have the comments turned off, which can be a sign that a post is a hoax.

Our 2023 investigation into this type of post found they’re often edited later to include links to surveys, freebies or cheap housing. In February, we found these hoax posts continue to be an issue, with at least 47 communities across the UK being victim to nine different hoaxes we fact checked that month.

Hoaxes pose a risk to user engagement with local community news because groups can become overwhelmed with false information. As a result, genuine posts may be ignored or dismissed as false.

We’ve written to Meta asking the company to take stronger action in response to this problem.