Around 4 a.m. Thursday, police stopped a van on suspicion of impaired driving and officers noticed the unidentified 54-year-old male driver had "an immobile companion with him," The Gazette newspaper said.

Sgt. Marc Butz of the provincial Surete du Quebec force would only say the corpse was female, and offered no other details.

The man was taken into custody, but delays led to the body remaining in the van for most of the day, Butz said.

"We only got a warrant this afternoon to search the vehicle," Butz said Thursday.

The provincial major crimes unit was requested to handle the investigation by the local force, and an autopsy was scheduled for the woman, although it wasn't clear when it would occur, the report said.