Authorities say a Florida police officer’s wife died after becoming trapped in the back of his patrol vehicle for several hours during a hot afternoon.

Investigators are treating the death of 56-year-old Clara Paulino as an accident. She died Friday afternoon while her 58-year-old husband Aristides Paulino was sleeping in their Miami Shores home after finishing a midnight shift .

Officials say she had climbed into the backseat of his marked SUV to find something when the doors somehow closed, and a self-locking mechanism engaged.

According to the Miami Herald, a partition between the back seat and the front of the car likely prevented her from being able to honk the horn, and she didn’t have her cell phone with her to call for help.

Officials said she was trapped inside the vehicle for at least four hours. The family found her body around 5 p.m., a source told the paper.

The heat index around that time climbed from 91 degrees at 1 p.m. to 92 degrees at 3 p.m. The temperature held steady through 5 p.m.

Aristides, who covers the midnight shift in Wynwood, got home and fell asleep, but may have left his unit unlocked, according to the Miami Herald. The Miami-Dade Police Department is now investigating the case.