A medical examiner in Arizona has determined the cause of death of the Wells Fargo employee who was found dead in her cubicle four days after passing away. Concretely, she suffered a cardiac episode related to scarring of the heart muscle.
The incident took place in mid-August when Denise Prudhomme entered the bank's corporate office in Tempe but never left. She was discovered on August 20 by a security guard.
Her death left many of her colleagues devastated, especially as it took so long for anyone to notice she was missing. "I'm thinking 'What if I were just sitting there?' an employee told a local outlet.
No missing persons reports were filed during the four days between Prudhomme's death and the moment she was found. Employees did mention smelling a foul odor they attributed to faulty plumbing, and authorities said she worked at a less-populated area of the office due to remote work arrangements.
"Denise was the only person on her team in Tempe. This maybe one of the reasons why her desk was located in an underpopulated area of the building and nobody checked on her for four days," said a Wells Fargo union member.
The union member went on to criticize the company, saying it closely watches over employees for their behavior during work hours but didn't check on Prudhomme after she stopped being active.
'Wells Fargo monitors our every move and keystroke using remote, electronic technologies - purportedly to evaluate our productivity - and will fire us if we are caught not making enough keystrokes on our computers; however, Denise went unnoticed at her desk for four days,' the worker said.
'The contradictory nature of electronic surveillance versus an unnoticed death sheds light on the reality of what it means to be a worker at Wells Fargo.'
