An employee at a Smithfield Foods plant in Monmouth was found dead early Monday morning by a maintenance crew looking for him at the facility.
Patou M. Mpinda, 44, of Monmouth, was found dead at 2:31 a.m. at the Smithfield processing plant located along U.S. Route 34 in the city. According to Warren County Coroner Al McGuire, Mpinda's body was found by a maintenance crew searching for him that morning.
McGuire told the Journal Star on Tuesday that a formal cause of death remained pending.
Ray Atkinson, a senior director of external affairs for Smithfield, said in a statement that Mpinda had been involved in a fatal workplace accident, with their safety personnel working alongside local authorities to investigate the incident. "Our thoughts and prayers are with our co-worker's family," Atkinson said.
Juan Rodriguez, a spokesperson for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, said that OSHA is now conducting an investigation, with no other information being provided at this time.
Smithfield, the world's largest producer of pigs and pork products, purchased the Monmouth facility from Farmland Foods in a bankruptcy auction in 2003, according to the Journal Star archives. The facility had opened in 1965 as an Agar plant, operating under the Wilson Foods, Illinois Pork and Mariah Packing names at various points in its history.
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This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Worker killed in accident at Smithfield Foods plant in Monmouth identified