The body of a 57-year-old woman was found entangled in baggage-processing machinery at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on Thursday, authorities said.
Chicago firefighters found the woman after being called to the airport around 7:45 a.m. for a report of a person pinned in machinery used to move baggage. The woman’s body was entangled in a conveyor belt system in a baggage room.
The name of the victim was not initially released but the Chicago Police Department said she was 57 years old. The woman was not an airport employee, but a member of the public, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Labor.
On Friday, a medical examiner identified the dead woman as Virginia Christine Vinton of North Carolina, NBC Chicago reports. The incident occurred in Terminal 5, which serves Delta Airlines as well as a number of international carriers.
Questions are still swirling about the circumstances of Vinton’s death a day after her body was found. The baggage room was not publicly accessible and it’s unclear how she was able to enter the restricted area.
The area was declared a crime scene and turned over to the Chicago Police Department. In an email to The Associated Press, Chicago police said the woman was found unresponsive and pronounced dead at the scene. Detectives have launched an investigation.
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Initially, police said Vinton was found at 2:27 a.m., creating confusion given that firefighters didn’t arrive at O’Hare airport until after 7:45 a.m.
Chicago police issued a second statement correcting the mistake and clarifying that surveillance footage within the airport showed the woman entering the baggage room at 2:27 a.m. She was actually discovered at 7:30 a.m., prompting a 911 call.
The footage only shows her walking and does not show what happened to her. The surveillance cameras were not being monitored in real time, Chicago police added. Investigators retrieved the footage after the woman was found dead.
Police have not said how the woman arrived at O’Hare airport. It’s unclear if she had a plane ticket to fly out of Chicago or had landed at O’Hare from elsewhere.
In 2019, a toddler climbed on a baggage conveyor belt at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The conveyor belt travelled from behind a ticket counter, up a chute and through an X-ray machine, the Washington Post reports. The toddler ended up injuring their hand.
— With files from The Associated Press