A foul odor at a Tempe, Arizona Wells Fargo bank office that some employees thought was bad plumbing turned out to be the smell of a co-worker who had been dead at her cubicle for four days.
Denise Prudhomme, 60, was discovered by a bank employee on Aug. 20, four days after she was last recorded entering the building. Tempe police do not suspect foul play as the death appears to be by natural causes.
“We are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of our colleague at our Tempe office,” Wells Fargo said in a statement. “… We are fully cooperating with the Tempe Police Department in their investigation and will direct all further questions to them.”
One question on authorities’ minds is why it took so long for Prudhomme’s body to be discovered. She last scanned into the building at 7 a.m. Friday, Aug. 16, and the bank was closed over the weekend. She never scanned out, but still somehow apparently went undetected the following Monday as well.
“It’s really heartbreaking and I’m thinking, ‘What if I were just sitting there? No one would check on me?” an anonymous Wells Fargo worker told Tempe’s News 12.
“That’s the scary part. That’s the uneasy part. It’s negligence in some part.”
