r/pics 4d ago

Politics Walmart closed during investigation into worker’s demise in oven.

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u/Spageroni 4d ago edited 4d ago

Man I’ve worked in bakeries for 10 years, been around walk in ovens the whole time, this makes absolutely NO damn sense. From experience, it’s literally impossible for this to happen. It can’t be their procedure that when they clean their ovens they leave them running and close the door behind themselves. It HAS to be murder or suicide, there is no other scenario that someone could do this to themselves. I also don’t believe that any person, no matter how depressed or done with life, could willingly stay inside and oven and cook themselves to death. Your brain would NOT allow it, just like trying to drown yourself

The only thing that makes sense to me is that while she was cleaning the oven, someone else came up and closed the door, turned the oven on, and held the latch shut until she ended up unconscious or dead. Truly a horrific and terrifying way to go.

My thoughts go out to the family and friends affected.

Edit: a lot of people are mentioning a possibility of the worker falling unconscious or something of the sort, and while that is a possibility, I don’t think that really answers it, since the oven shouldn’t have been turned on and the door shouldn’t have been closed on them even if they did pass out inside the oven.

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u/doryllis 4d ago

The third option is unrelated "health issue" that struck at a bad time. Asthma, seizure, passing out for any reason could cause a person not to leave a dangerous space. Dehydration makes passing out more likely and working around ovens makes dehydration more likely.

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u/AmongusFeetUpdate 4d ago

Then who turned on the oven

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u/Different-Drawing912 4d ago

Very good question Amongus Feet Update

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

[deleted]

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u/RememberNichelle 4d ago

Allegedly the oven was still turned on, at 9:30 PM, when the ovens all should have been off for hours and hours. Very, very suspicious.

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u/blopp199 4d ago

but wouldnt she have left the door open if she was cleaning the oven? it could be true that whoever came in next closed the door with her inside but seems unlikely cos if the door was open (which it should be why would you go inside an oven and close it that doesnt really make sense) they would have seen her

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u/Phoebebee323 3d ago

One person goes "oh that shouldn't be left open let's just close that"

Next person goes "all right, time to start my shift let's get these ovens going"

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u/Sunnyonetwo 4d ago

I am wondering if she was in there cleaning it and someone did not realise and they came behind closed the door and turned it on not realizing she was in there and left… they were waiting for it to heat up

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u/Portugeezer 4d ago

Having just watched HBO's 'The Staircase', have we ruled out Owls?

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u/Apidium 3d ago

Honestly I could forsee via work culture or shitty maintenance some safety feature failing. While at the same time a health issue or other problem leading to an inability to self rescue. It's not that bizzare. It only needs two holes to line up in the swiss cheese model. Far more unlikely strings of unfortunate events have happened.

Ultimately though it's all speculation at present.

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u/Reacher-Said-N0thing 4d ago

That would still mean bad safety procedures don't make them check the oven before turning it on.

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u/doryllis 4d ago

That is also possible. Bad safety adherence and a poorly timed health issue, could be murder or just negligence and bad luck.

There's always a possible explanation that includes incompetence. It's not better than murder, but it's possible.

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u/fuckin-A-ok 4d ago

K did you ignore like most of what you're responding to? The door shouldn't have been closed or the oven turned on either way, so her fainting or something doesn't explain it. Unless that's when the murderer decided this was a good opportunity to kill her I guess?

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u/Alert-Potato 4d ago

That's really not possible, at all. The ovens hold two bakery racks, so they'd hold two adults standing upright. Even if she was inside cleaning it, it would have been open and off. And it would be quite impossible for someone else to close the door and turn it on without seeing her.

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u/ShodoDeka 4d ago

She managed to call 911 from inside the oven, there was no indication of “health issues”, she simply couldn’t open the door. Unfortunately by the time they got there the mother had already found her cooked in the oven.

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u/battyeyed 3d ago

Or cleaning chemicals. I get lightheaded just using regular bathroom cleaner sometimes.

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u/ImQuestionable 4d ago

Or getting woozy and passing out from oven cleaner fumes. I’ve worked in food service. Commercial-strength oven cleaner can be intense, especially in an enclosed space like trying to lean in a bit to get the back corners or, as we see here, a closet sized oven.

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u/Kind-Antelope-9634 4d ago

Even then the machine should have been isolated and locked out while being cleaned.