Nearly a year and a half after the tragic death of her teenage daughter inside a bakery oven at a Walmart store, a grieving mother says she is still searching for answers.

Gursimran Kaur, 19, was discovered dead on October 19, 2024, inside a large commercial oven used to bake frozen bread at a Walmart in Halifax, Nova Scotia. According to reports, she had been working a shift alongside her mother, Mandip Kaur, when the heartbreaking incident occurred.

During their shift that day, Mandip became concerned when she realized she hadn’t seen or heard from her daughter for more than an hour. At first, coworkers believed Gursimran might have stepped away to assist a customer, but concern quickly grew when another employee noticed liquid leaking near the bakery’s industrial oven — a sign that something was seriously wrong.

Mandip went to check the oven herself and made the devastating discovery.

“I opened the door and she was there,” Mandip told the 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 also described seeing a dark liquid coming from the oven, which can reach temperatures of up to 400 degrees.

Authorities later confirmed that Gursimran’s body had been found near the baking racks inside the oven. Investigators from Halifax Regional Police reviewed surveillance footage and interviewed employees as part of their investigation.

After examining the circumstances, officials announced that 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 workplace investigation. Officials reported that the oven was functioning properly and that there were no violations of occupational health and safety regulations linked to the incident.

Greg Hanna, the department’s Director of Communications, stated that the oven could be opened from the inside and that investigators found no evidence suggesting workplace safety rules had been broken.

Despite those conclusions, Mandip and her family say they remain deeply dissatisfied with the outcome of the investigation.

“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.”

The mother firmly rejects the idea that her daughter may have intentionally harmed herself. She says Gursimran had been in good spirits just hours before the tragedy.

“Does she look depressed? She was so happy,” Mandip said.

According to her family, Gursimran had been the valedictorian of her graduating class and hoped to pursue medical studies in the future with the goal of becoming a doctor.

The tragedy also had a significant impact on the local community. The Walmart store where the incident occurred remained closed for four months following Gursimran’s death. When it eventually reopened, the bakery department had been relocated to another area of the store, and the original industrial ovens had been replaced with smaller units.

For Mandip, however, the physical changes to the store have not brought closure.

Even as official investigations have concluded, she continues to seek a clearer explanation for how such a devastating event could have happened — and why the circumstances surrounding her daughter’s death remain unresolved.