Community awaits answers in death of Halifax Walmart employee found in store oven

The family of a Halifax Walmart employee who was found dead inside an oven in the store is still waiting for answers more than a week after her death.

It’s been more than a week since the death of 19-year old Halifax Walmart employee Gursimran Kaur, whose body was discovered in an industrial oven in the store’s bakery.

As of Monday, the Walmart on Mumford Road remains closed, marked only by caution tape. Her grieving family and community say they have been left in the dark with no word on the circumstances surrounding the cause.

“There’s only three or four different things that could have occurred. They not only have to prove one of them to be what occurred but to prove three to not be what occurred,” said Chris Lewis, CTV News public safety analyst and former commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police.

Kaur died on Oct. 19. So far, police are only calling the incident a sudden death.

According to a fundraiser set up by the Maritime Sikh Society, Kaur’s mother, who also worked at Walmart, found her daughter after an hour of looking for her around the store. The mother had been calling Kaur’s phone but the call was not going through.

The story has gone far beyond Canada’s borders, making international headlines. Some people have been searching for answers on social media and making their own assumptions.

“It certainly puts pressure on police to say something,” explained Lewis. “For them to say it’s an accident and have the charges for murder laid out will affect any court proceedings in the future,”