CORPUS CHRISTI, TX – A woman believed to be homeless was discovered dead inside an air-conditioning chiller system at Corpus Christi’s City Hall, CCPD officials revealed on Friday. Authorities suspect she snuck into the secured loading dock area behind a city truck trying to gain access to the building before finding her way to the chiller.
City Manager Peter Zanoni indicated that the woman’s attempts to enter City Hall commenced at 6 a.m., with security personnel observing her activities via surveillance cameras. Zanoni explained, “The event of climbing the ladder into the area where the top of the cooling tower [is located], that all spanned just a few minutes.” Security staff promptly called the police as events unfolded.
Corpus Christi Fire Department (CCFD) was on the scene by 10 a.m., tasked with safely extracting the woman’s body. Deputy Fire Chief Doug Matthijetz stated that the body wasn’t located deep inside the unit and was also largely intact.
A subsequent examination of the area showed that the enclosure was small and housed two large turbines with rapidly spinning blades. “It’s quite possible the blades probably were the cause of death,” suggested Zanoni.
The incident prompted a complete shutdown of the air conditioning system, and employees at City Hall were given the option to work from home. Despite this, the city secretary and utility billing offices stayed open for business on the ground floor.