A fast-food restaurant employee was faced with a chilling image when they discovered the body of a deceased woman inside the shop's walk-in freezer.
The gruesome discovery happened on Thursday at an Arby's in a shopping centre at New Iberia Lagniappe Village, Louisiana.
Police were called to the scene and initially investigated the scene as a homicide, calling it a "suspicious" death.
However, they later said it might as well have been an accident.
The dead woman was found to have been an employee at the restaurant, according to the police. Her identity has not been released.
The cause of the woman's death hasn't been identified as of yet, and the results of an autopsy are still pending.
No arrests have been made in relation to the incident and no suspects have been named as of yet.
“So it was an employee that discovered the female deceased inside the cooler, (and) the deceased is an employee of the restaurant,” New Iberia Police Capt. Leland Laseter told News 15.
Mr Laseter added: "A situation like this is unusual, so we’re taking extra precautions during the investigation.
"(We) pretty much have completed our process at the crime scene. After completely processing the crime scene... this does not seem like a homicide, it seems like an accident.”
However, the captain cautioned that those findings were preliminary, adding: "Nothing is set in stone yet."
He noted that multiple employees of the fast food restaurant were interviewed as part of the initial probe, and some may be interviewed again.
A coroner's vehicle arrived in the late night hours and took the body to the morgue for an autopsy to confirm the victim's identity and cause of death.
“We're going to re-examine all the evidence tomorrow and they're going to conduct an autopsy to give us the cause and manner of death. So there are a few more steps that we need to take before a (final) determination is made,” the police captain said.
