Swaffham Co-op undertaker crushed to death by lift - inquest

An undertaker was found crushed to death by a piece of equipment used to move bodies from a fridge in the back room of a funeral parlour, an inquest heard. Funeral administrator Sally Blundell, 58, had been working alone at the East of England Co-op Funeral Services branch in Swaffham, Norfolk, on 1 December 2023. A inquest into her death at Norfolk Coroner's Court heard she was found by a colleague from another branch after concerns were raised by a family who had an appointment, but found no staff. Norfolk 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 11:00 GMT appointment. In a statement read to the inquest, 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. Stephen Kemp, who works in the Dereham branch, came to the Swaffham branch and r