MONTREAL—The Repentigny police made a grisly discovered on Thursday morning while investigating the area around where a 21-year-old man jumped off a highway overpass to his death.

The man’s girlfriend was in the trunk of a nearby car, beaten close to death. She was in critical condition on Thursday afternoon, after undergoing emergency surgery at 2:30 p.m.

According to Michel Perrault, assistant director of the Repentigny police, investigators are meeting with friends and family of the couple, trying to piece together what happened.

The saga began just after 5 a.m. on Thursday when Surete du Quebec officers were called to the area where Route 341 passes over Highway 40. The body of the young adult was found on the side of the highway, having been hit by passing traffic after a fall from the overpass.

A major rural road carrying traffic north to l'Epiphanie, the thoroughfare is at the extreme eastern edge of Repentigny.

The man’s 20-year-old girlfriend was found unconscious in the parking lot of a nearby Tim Hortons. The couple was not known to police.