A mother is still searching for answers nearly a year and a half after discovering her teenage daughter’s body inside a Walmart bakery oven.
Gursimran Kaur, 19, was found dead on October 19, 2024, in a large commercial oven used for baking frozen bread at the Halifax, Nova Scotia, store, according to VT. She had been working alongside her mother, Mandip Kaur, when the tragedy occurred.
Mandip began to worry after she hadn’t heard from her daughter for over an hour during their shift. At first, co-workers assumed she might be helping a customer, but concern grew when another employee noticed liquid leaking near the bakery oven, an indication that something had gone terribly wrong.
Mandip opened the oven and made the devastating discovery. “I opened the door and she was there,” she told Daily Mail. “I couldn’t handle myself. I was there on the floor with her for five or 10 minutes. I didn’t know what had happened.” She described a black-brown liquid oozing from the oven, which can reach temperatures of up to 400 degrees.
“She was so happy”
Gursimran’s body, found near the baking racks. Halifax Regional Police conducted interviews and reviewed surveillance footage from the scene. Authorities later announced the death had “been determined not to be suspicious,” according to NBC News.
Nova Scotia’s Department of Labor, Skills, and Immigration conducted a separate investigation and also found no workplace safety violations. Officials said the oven was functioning correctly, according to VT.
Greg Hanna, the department’s Director of Communications, confirmed the oven “could be opened from the inside” and found no evidence that “violations of occupational health and safety laws [that] contributed to the death.”
andip and her family say they are not satisfied with the official conclusions.
“After 18 months [of] investigation they are unable to discover what happened,” Mandip said. “They couldn’t find any solid thing. They don’t know. They don’t have any proof. No solid results. We are not satisfied.”
Store stayed closed for months following Gursimran Kaur’s death
Mandip insists her daughter had no intention of taking her own life. She said they spent the night before the tragedy laughing and celebrating.
“Does she look depressed? She was so happy,” Mandip said.
Gursimran had been the valedictorian of her class and dreamed of studying medicine to become a doctor.
The Walmart in Halifax closed for four months following the incident. When the store reopened, the bakery had been moved to another part of the building, and the original ovens were replaced with smaller models.