A mother and the Sikh community in Canada’s East Coast province of Nova Scotia are in mourning after she found her daughter dead in a Walmart store’s oven Oct. 19, according to a fundraiser.
The mother of Gursimran Kaur, 19, found the teenager dead at night in the walk-in oven at the Halifax-based Walmart Bakery where Gursimran and her mother had been working for the past two years, according to a GoFundMe campaign the Gurdwara Maritime Sikh Society (GMSS) ran on the family’s behalf.
A statement Tuesday from the Halifax Regional Municipality’s (HRM) government office also revealed Gursimran’s remains were found in the oven of the store’s bakery but added that “the investigation has not yet reached a point where the cause and manner of death have been confirmed.”
Gursimran’s mother had tried unsuccessfully in person and by phone to find Gursimran while they both worked, according to the fundraiser. People around Gursimran’s mother surmised that the teenager was attending to some customer in some other part of the superstore, the page said.
Gursimran then reported her daughter missing to the store’s administrators, according to the fundraiser. Ultimately, Gursimran’s “charred remains were found inside the walk in oven in the Bakery after a few hours,” the fundraiser reported. (RELATED: 2 People Dead, Officer Wounded In Mississippi Walmart Shooting)
“Imagine the horror that her mother experienced who herself opened the oven, when someone pointed out to it!” the fundraiser read in part. The page alleged that Gursimran was “burned to death.”
The GMSS said via the fundraiser that it was working to secure travel for Gursimran’s father and brother to Halifax from India.
Speculation on social media about the incident and the victim’s identity appeared to have driven the GMSS to clarify via a statement that the fundraiser was legitimate and approved by Gursimran’s family and that all the funds would go to the family.
The fundraiser has raised nearly thrice the $50,000 CAD target as of the time of this report. The GMSS said in the fundraiser that they initially kept it open after it met the target as more people volunteered to help, but later added that they were unable to pause it and had contacted GoFundMe to close it.
The Halifax Regional Police-led multiagency investigation into Gursimran’s “sudden death” is complicated and would take some time, according to the HRM’s statement.
“We urge the public to be mindful of sharing speculative information on social media. Please be aware of the impacts that speculation could have on family, colleagues and loved ones of the woman,” the HRM said.
This article was originally published at dailycaller.com
