CHELMSFORD — A woman in her 80s pulls out of her Lowell garage in the Highlands — with no clue that a body is in her Honda Accord’s trunk.

She arrives in Chelmsford for a doctor’s appointment, and notices the trunk is not firmly latched. She goes to shut it, but finds a hand sticking out.

With that startling discovery, the tense search for a murder suspect came to a close Friday afternoon.

The body of 51-year-old Ross Elliott was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a car off Technology Drive in the Drum Hill area just before 2 p.m.

The search for Elliott had become a massive manhunt with more than 100 police officers and SWAT team members. He was the suspect for Thursday morning’s slaying of 44-year-old Nicole White in a Stevens Street apartment in the Highlands..

“We are fortunate that the situation has come to the end,” Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said at a press conference near where Elliott was found two hours after the manhunt ended. “Unfortunately, it came to an end with the loss of life.

“At this point, we don’t have any reason to believe that there’s a continuing danger to anyone in Lowell or Chelmsford,” she added.

Chelmsford police received a call around 1:45 p.m. of a body at 20 Research Place, a satellite campus for Lowell General Hospital.

Opening the trunk, officers saw a dead man. They called Lowell police detectives, who then confirmed the man was Elliott.

“I pulled in here and there was one cop so I wasn’t really thinking anything happened,” said Brendan Daley, who was at the LGH location for an appointment. Then troopers and local police flew into the parking lot.

“They popped the trunk and next thing you know their guns were drawn,” Daley said.

Elliott was previously in a domestic relationship with White and has a long criminal history, including violent crimes against other women.

Officers responded to reports of a shooting at 166 Stevens St. around 7:30 a.m. Thursday. Police officials said Ross approached White in a common area of the building and shot her in front of some family members.

White, whose last name is recorded in some records as Gamache-White, had a daughter, who is currently safe with other family members.

Throughout Friday morning, police scoured the city for Elliott, responding in force to multiple reports of open windows and broken locks.

The last confirmed sighting of Elliott was about 4:30 p.m. Thursday near the intersection of Pine and Stevens streets. Police conducted an extensive ground search in that area — with more than 100 Lowell police officers, state police officers, and other officers from the North Eastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council.

“It appears he didn’t get very far from that location (Pine and Stevens),” said Lowell Police Superintendent William Taylor. The intense search helped contain Elliott in that area, Taylor emphasized.

The murder suspect had entered a garage on Dumerle Street, and then climbed into the trunk, according to authorities.

Karan McCarthy lives next door to the woman in her 80s who unknowingly drove Elliott to Chelmsford. McCarthy said she did not hear a gunshot Thursday night. However, she recalled her dog “going ballistic.”

“He was running back and forth in my yard, standing on his hind legs,” McCarthy said.

In her 45 years on Dumerle Street, there has never been any drama like this, she stressed. It’s a quiet one-way street, near Morey Elementary School.

“I’m sure this poor thing is petrified,” McCarthy said about the woman in her 80s. “I’d be afraid to come back and stay here by myself after something like that happened.”

Ryan said it’s early in the investigation, so they’re unsure about what time Elliott died.

“We don’t know when he got in the car,” Ryan said about the suspect. “The last thing we know is he was last seen at 4:30 Thursday.”

Taylor and Lowell City Manager Kevin Murphy applauded the efforts of the police officers and help from others.

“I want to commend the Lowell Police Department, the Chelmsford Police Department, State Police and all surrounding communities that responded to this tragic event last night,” Murphy said.

“The only way to describe their actions last night and today is courageous,” he added.

Helicopters were buzzing over the Highlands for more than 24 hours, and residents of the neighborhood discussed the search in local stores and coffee shops.

One young girl, waiting for her school bus, said she had been afraid to leave her house.

Children weren’t the only ones frightened.

“It’s over with, now I can breathe,” said Melissa Demont, who lives in the Highlands. Demont said she didn’t sleep Thursday night.

“I’m still kind of shaken,” she added. “I’m just glad it’s over with.”