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Death of young woman in Halifax Walmart walk-in oven not suspicious: police

19-year-old employee found in store鈥檚 bakery on Oct. 19
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A memorial outside the taped-off area outside a Walmart in Halifax on Wednesday, October 23, 2024. Halifax police have determined the death of a young woman whose body was found in Walmart鈥檚 walk-in oven was not suspicious and did not involve foul play.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren Calabrese

The death of a young Halifax woman whose body was found last month in a Walmart鈥檚 walk-in oven was not suspicious and there was no evidence of foul play, police said Monday.

Nineteen-year-old Gursimran Kaur鈥檚 Oct. 19 death in the store鈥檚 bakery is now the subject of a separate workplace investigation led by Nova Scotia鈥檚 Labour Department.

Const. Martin Cromwell, a spokesman for Halifax Regional Police, posted a video on Facebook, saying police 鈥渄o not believe that anyone else was involved in the circumstances surrounding the woman鈥檚 death.鈥

Cromwell went on to say investigators had conducted several interviews, reviewed video footage and worked with the provincial Labour Department and the Nova Scotia Medical Examiner Service. Exactly what caused Kaur鈥檚 death has yet to be released.

鈥淲e acknowledge the public鈥檚 interest in this case and that there are questions that may never have answers,鈥 Cromwell said in the video. 鈥淧lease be mindful of the damage public speculation can cause. This woman鈥檚 loved ones are grieving.鈥

Police said they had informed Kaur鈥檚 family of their findings. 鈥淭he family asks the public to respect their privacy and the dignity and memory of their loved one as they receive this news,鈥 police said in a separate statement.

A Sikh organization had earlier confirmed that Kaur鈥檚 body was found by her mother, who had worked with her daughter at the Mumford Road store for about two years. The Maritime Sikh Society says Kaur, a Sikh woman originally from India, had immigrated to Canada with her mother.

The society issued a statement last month saying that on the night of Oct. 19, the mother became frantic after her daughter failed to answer her phone during the Saturday night shift. The mother, whose name was not released, eventually opened the bakery oven and found her daughter鈥檚 burned body, the statement said.

She was 鈥渁 young beautiful girl who came to Canada with big dreams,鈥 the society said on an online fundraising page.

On Oct. 30, the organization said Kaur鈥檚 father and brother were headed to Halifax from the Punjab region of India, having received emergency visas on compassionate grounds.

Balbir Singh, secretary of the Maritime Sikh Society, said Monday that family members did not want to speak to the media and had asked the society not to make any statements on their behalf.

With the police investigation into possible criminality completed, the Labour Department said Monday that it was leading its own investigation. 鈥淲orkplace investigations are complex and take time,鈥 the department said, adding that it had no other details to share.

The department had imposed a stop-work order on the bakery soon after the death was reported, but that order was lifted on Oct. 28. That came 鈥渁fter the oven was assessed and determined to have been operating as per the manufacturer鈥檚 requirements,鈥 the department said.

At the time, the department said that in the last five years, labour investigators had conducted nine inspections at the store, none of which produced any enforcement action. On Nov. 7, Walmart said the oven would be removed from the store.

As of Monday, the store remained closed.





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