ORANGE COUNTY - Investigators have followed a half-dozen leads and spoken to several residents but still don’t know where the bullet came from that hit a woman in a car Wednesday.

The woman was struck in the head behind the ear. The .22 caliber bullet was removed Wednesday afternoon and she suffered no permanent injury, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Thursday.

Investigators continue to think the shooting was accidental and that the woman was not targeted, the release said.

The woman, whose name was not released, was riding in a vehicle on Jones Ferry Road south of Carrboro just after 11 a.m. Wednesday.

She was struck by what appeared to be a small caliber bullet that entered through the open window of the vehicle in which she was a passenger, Maj. C.S. Blackwood said.

The woman and the driver work with a house-cleaning service in Durham and were on their way to a job in Orange County, Blackwood said. They were riding past a wooded intersection of Ann Lane when the woman was wounded.

A .22 caliber bullet can travel a mile to a mile and a half if shot straight, according to several online resources.

“Everyone should be mindful that every shot fired lands somewhere so if you plan to target shoot, you should only fire at an intended target in a safe manner,” the news release said. “As the county becomes more densely populated this becomes even more important.”