The coroner's office has confirmed Natasha Cournoyer's body was found Tuesday in Montreal. (CBC)

A body found Tuesday in Montreal's Pointe-aux-Trembles neighbourhood is that of a Correctional Service of Canada employee who vanished from a Laval parking lot last week.

Natasha Cournoyer's death was confirmed in a statement released by the Quebec coroner's office on Wednesday.

The 37-year-old Piedmont, Que., woman was last seen leaving her workplace in Laval, where surveillance cameras captured images of her heading to the parking lot.

The body, which bore marks of violence, was found by City of Montreal workers near a municipal boat launch.

Montreal police Const. Olivier Lapointe said it was too soon to say how Cournoyer was killed, or when her body might have been dumped there.

"We would like to thank all people who showed a great interest in this event and invite anyone who has information on that matter to call Info Crime," said Lapointe.

Cournoyer's boyfriend, Michel Trottier, had told media outlets he believed his girlfriend had been abducted.

Laval police said they were not ruling anything out.

Assisted by volunteers from Cournoyer's office, police had been combing the area around the Place Laval office tower where she worked.

On Wednesday, the search area was expanded to Laval's Duvernay area, where police said a cellphone tower had picked up a signal from Cournoyer's phone on Friday.

Officials at the Correctional Service of Canada said that Cournoyer, who worked as an internal communications officer, did not have any direct contact with offenders.

Trottier was scheduled to take a lie-detector test Wednesday, but that was delayed.

Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu of Quebec's Murdered or Missing Persons' Families' Association said he had been in touch with Cournoyer's family while they were waiting for confirmation about the identification of the body.

"It's like a thief passed through the family and get away with Natasha. It's very hard. They will be angry. They will be in pain," he said.

A $10,000 reward had been issued for information leading to her whereabouts.

The investigation has now been transferred to the Montreal police's major crimes unit, which is working in co-operation with Laval police.

With files from The Canadian Press