A unnamed Pennsylvania woman was killed on Monday after falling into a commercial meat grinder.
The unidentified 35-year-old victim was an employee with Economy Locker Storage Company, who authorities say was found by a co-worker investigating strange noises coming from the machine. Lycoming County coroner Charles Kiessling Jr. confirmed her death.
“We talked to the person who found her. He said he heard a noise and went to check on her and found her in the machine. He put the power down and called 911,” Kiessling said. “This is just a tragedy. She died inside the moving parts of the machine.”
“I don’t know if she got caught with the moving parts and they pulled her in, or if she just slipped and fell,” Kiessling continued, “I don’t know and there’s no way of determining that.”
According to Kiessling, she may have been standing atop a set of wheeled stairs prior to the accident. The firefighters called to the scene spent a grisly 45 minutes disassembling the grinder to recover her remains.
Speaking to local ABC News affiliate WNEP, a neighbor said, “My heart goes out to everyone who is affected by this. Everyone is shaken and thinks that this is a tragedy that something like this had to happen to such a young lady.”
The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration told the network that it has begun investigating the woman’s death.