CORPUS CHRISTI, TX – A woman tragically died on Friday morning, around 7:20 a.m., after falling into an air-conditioning cooling tower at City Hall. The incident came to light when a city maintenance employee heard an unusual noise emanating from the chiller and found a woman’s lifeless body inside. Officials are attempting to establish whether the woman, who was not an employee of the city, may have been residing nearby.
City Manager, Peter Zanoni, stated that following a surveillance footage review, it was revealed that the woman had surreptitiously gained access to a secured area at City Hall. She accomplished this by closely following an employee who was entering or exiting the premises. Having entered the secure area, the woman climbed into the large industrial air-conditioning unit after removing a mesh-wire cover.
Zanoni shared insights on the incident, “So right now, what we know is that a dead body, a female, is at the bottom of a pre-cooling tower here at City Hall that’s used to pre-cool the water part of our air conditioning system. So it looks like the lady climbed up, removed a protecting screen, and fell down to the bottom of the pre-cooling tower.”
With the cooling system rendered ineffective due to the ongoing investigation, City Hall employees are advised to work remotely until further notice. Despite the shutdown, the first floor, including the utility billing offices, will remain functional. However, local residents are urged to avoid visiting the area for bill payments and utilize the 311 Call Center or online platforms instead.
At present, the Corpus Christi Fire Department is involved in safely extracting the woman’s body from the cooling tower as investigations into the circumstances of her death proceed.