A chilling mystery is swirling around a Halifax, Nova Scotia Walmart location, after a 19-year-old employee was found dead inside the store’s walk-in oven.
The majority of details surrounding the case are still being kept under wraps, as police continue their investigation, but what few facts we know are strange and disturbing. According to Halifax Regional Police, “the woman, who was an employee of the store, was located in a large walk-in oven belonging to the store’s bakery department.” Her identity has not been revealed.
Regional police investigators are working with Occupational Health and Safety and the Nova Scotia Medical Examiner Service in hopes of discovering exactly what went wrong, but the investigation is reportedly challenging. Police dubbed the case “complex,” when speaking with press, and emphasized that “an investigation of this nature may take a significant amount of time.”
On the web, where the story is spreading like wildfire, rumors are already running rampant, and plenty of true crime sleuths think they have cause of death figured out, police confirmation or no.
How did that poor Walmart employee die?
A precise cause of death will eventually be released by police, but for now pure speculation is swirling as minor details emerge. Quite a few people assume the unnamed 19-year-old’s cause of death was obvious, but that’s ignoring the possibility of foul play.
Due to the fact that the body was discovered in a walk-in oven, the majority of true crime followers with an eye on the case assume her cause of death was related to the oven itself. They’re dubbing it a death by roasting, a horrific possibility that still sparks more questions than answers. If it was an accident, how did she find herself in the oven, alone, with no one to help her escape? If it wasn’t an accident, who could off someone in such a horrific way?
But there are far more possibilities. It’s entirely plausible that the teen was killed before she ever reached the oven, and the immense heat of the oven was later used as a means to cover up the crime. It will be challenging for police to discover a cause of death if so, given that the heat of the oven will have tampered with much of the lingering evidence.
One current Walmart employee even gave an inside peek at what those massive ovens look like, and openly wondered how this could have happened. There’s an emergency release button located on the inside of the walk-in, that — unless broken — should have allowed the employee to free herself — assuming she was in an able state to do so.
This is all speculation, of course, and all actual details should be left to the professionals. What is likely to be a protracted investigation is already underway, and rather than gossip about a horrible tragedy, it’s best to allow police to do their jobs. In the meantime, the Walmart location where she was found is closed “until further notice,” as police continue to investigate.
A statement from Walmart spokesperson Amanda Moss expresses remorse for the loss of the young employee. “We are heartbroken and our deepest thoughts are with our associate and their family,” Moss said in a statement to ABC News. “Our focus remains on taking care of our associates and making sure they have the support they need.”
