Police have detained a Las Vegas woman after the body of a child who could be her 3-year-old daughter was found in a duffel bag inside her apartment, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports.

The 29-year-old woman, Aisha Thomas, telephoned authorities on Thursday night reporting that her 3-year-old daughter had disappeared while grocery shopping with her three other children.

It’s standard practice in such situations to search the family’s residence first because that’s often where children hide, so that’s what police did. The initial search of the woman’s apartment turned up nothing.

But inconsistencies soon emerged in Thomas’ version of events, and so police searched the apartment a second time. That’s when they found a duffel bag in a bedroom closet.

Inside was the body of a young girl who matched the description of Thomas’ missing daughter, although her identity has not yet been confirmed. The girl looked as though she had died at some point over the past several days, Metropolitan Police Department homicide Lt. Ray Spencer said.

The Clark County coroner is investigating the cause of death.

The father of the 3-year-old girl, Don Hunt, 30, was arrested earlier in the week for outstanding warrants after police responded to the apartment for a report of domestic violence.

Thomas’ three other kids, all younger than 3 years old, are in the custody of child protective services.

The agency investigated the family in 2017, but details of that case were not immediately available Saturday.

[Feature Photo: Aisha Thomas/Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department]