Sally Blundell, 58, had been working alone at the East of England Co-op Funeral Services branch in Swaffham on December 1, 2023, when she died.
Concerns were raised by a family who had a pre-arranged appointment at the funeral parlour, but found no staff there.
Stephen Kemp, a funeral manager at the Dereham branch, went to the parlour and discovered Mrs Blundell’s body and rang emergency services.
Police officer Luke Heffer said he went through the chapel of rest to a back room where he found her trapped in the ‘scissor lift’, used to lift caskets in and out of the fridge, lying across a bar and with the upper part of her body inside the frame.
Emergency services on the scene on the day of the incident (Image: Christopher Bishop)
Area coroner Yvonne Blake said Mrs Blundell’s medical cause of death was recorded as “contusion and compression of the chest by an external object”.
Dawn Salisbury, who had made arrangements to see a deceased relative, became concerned when there were no staff at the funeral parlour for her 11am appointment.
In a statement, she said that “after about 10 minutes I decided to ring the landline number for that branch”.
When she could not hear a phone ringing within the branch, she tried calling the celebrant she had been dealing with and a message was passed to another branch.
A jury inquest began at Norfolk Coroner’s Court on Monday (March 23). (Image: Denise Bradley)
Mr Kemp said he asked security personnel to remotely check CCTV cameras at the Swaffham branch.
He said they could see two women sat in the reception area, who had attended the 11am appointment, and Mrs Blundell’s car in the car park, but no sign of her.
The inquest heard there are no CCTV cameras in sensitive areas of the funeral parlour where bodies are kept.
In a statement, Mr Kemp said that a “hydraulic hoist had come down on her body and was crushing her over the chest area” and that it was “apparent to me she was already dead”.
Mrs Blundell’s daughter, Lucy Blundell, said in a statement: “I understand she had raised concerns about lone working”.
She said that her mother, from Great Cressingham, was “respected by her colleagues” and had a “wide network of friends”.
The coroner said Mrs Blundell was last seen on CCTV in the branch at 9.46am on December 1, walking away after taking a call on her work mobile phone.
A forensic services van outside the East of England Co-op Funeral Services in Swaffham (Image: Christopher Bishop)
Paul Bradbury, senior food and safety officer at Breckland Council, which investigated the incident, said Mrs Blundell was found “trapped in the mechanism of the mortuary hydraulic pump lift”.
His report said she had been due to facilitate a viewing of a deceased person that morning.
There was an initial police investigation before the local authority took over, he said.
He said the council investigation looked at the condition and maintenance of the trolley, arrangements for lone working and training of staff.
The 200kg hydraulic scissor lift mortuary trolley, manufactured in 2018, was sent for examination by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), Mr Bradbury said.
He said this examination identified issues including that “the return spring on the control handle wasn’t fully operating and didn’t close the operating valve without manual assistance”.
His report also noted that “the design of the handle means in some positions it can be knocked against a solid object and advanced”.
“The time taken for the mechanism to descend is also deemed to be relevant,” he said.
Mr Bradbury said it was thought the trolley had been raised to a height of no greater than 5ft (1.5 metres) “as the deceased person had been placed in the middle of the three refrigerated drawers and there would have been no need for Sally to lift the lifting mechanism any higher”.
He said records show the trolley was last checked in October 2023 and identified no defects.
Records highlight Mrs Blundell was in date for various training courses, including health and safety, the report said.
Area coroner Yvonne Blake (Image: Denise Bradley)
Mrs Blundell was seen on CCTV entering the chapel of rest room at 9.46am.
An hourly lone worker alarm, at 10am, was manually closed at the remote alarm receiving centre, the inquest was told.
HSE specialist inspector Jonathan Wright, who examined the trolley, said in a report summarised by the coroner that “there was a problem with the release lever mechanism which could have contributed to the incident”.
He described situations where the trolley “could descend unexpectedly”.
One was that “the release valve lever could be released with the operator expecting the spring to stop descent and see it appears to have done so, whereas it might only have reduced the descent speed”.
Describing another possible scenario, Mr Wright said the lever could have been “left in the notch position – jolting or moving the trolley could have caused its release, causing it to descend”.
The inquest, being heard with a jury at Norfolk Coroner’s Court, continues.