Warning: This story contains distressing details
A Sikh organization has identified the 19-year-old woman who died in a Walmart bakery oven and says her mother — a co-worker at the store — was the one who discovered the body.
The Maritime Sikh Society has identified the victim as Gursimran Kaur, a Sikh woman originally from India who had immigrated to Canada with her mother a couple of years ago.
Balbir Singh, secretary of the society, says Kaur’s mother is still suffering from shock but has authorized the release of information on her daughter for an online fundraising page.
The GoFundMe page, which had raised more than $90,000 as of midday Thursday, says the mother became frantic after her daughter stopped answering her phone during the Saturday night shift.
Halifax police are investigating the sudden death of a 19-year-old employee found inside an industrial oven in a Walmart. The oven is big enough to step inside. Police say the cause and manner of death have not been determined.
The group hasn’t released the name of the mother but says she was the one who opened the walk-in bakery oven at the store and found her daughter’s burned body.
The fundraiser describes the young woman as “a young beautiful girl who came to Canada with big dreams,” and it requests donations to bring her father and brother from the Punjab region of India to Nova Scotia for the funeral.
A spokeswoman from Walmart wasn’t immediately available for comment.