More disturbing details have emerged after a 19-year-old Walmart employee was found dead in the store’s walk-in bakery oven over the weekend.
In roughly 90 seconds of emergency call recordings released by the Daily Mail on Tuesday, a dispatcher tells peers about a request to respond to a female “locked in an oven in the bakery” at a Halifax, Nova Scotia, Walmart.
“Oven is on, unsure if the staff are able to turn it off,” they relayed.
Another dispatcher later told co-workers, “The person trapped in the… on their… do we have the powers off for that, does the staff want to turn the power off? … In case we do make contact.”
In response, a separate emergency dispatcher says the woman “was out of the oven upon arrival” and law enforcement was handling the matter.
On Tuesday, the city of Halifax released a statement, telling the public that regional police are investigating the incident along with Canada’s Centre for Occupational Health and Safety and the Nova Scotia Medical Examiner Service.
The statement noted that the multi-agency investigation is “complex” and may take a “significant amount of time” to resolve.
Though the city’s statement did not name the deceased, a GoFundMe appeal set up by an executive of the Maritime Sikh Society identified her as Gursimran Kaur, an Indian national.
Both Kaur and her mother had been employed at Walmart for two years, according to a report from India-based outlet NewsX.
In a statement released Tuesday, Walmart spokesperson Amanda Moss told ABC News, “Our deepest thoughts are with our associate and their family.”
“Our focus remains on taking care of our associates and making sure they have the support they need,” Moss said. “Our store will be closed until further notice.”
