Lawsuit filed over department store worker who died in store bathroom, body not found for days

By JEFFREY COLLINS
Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The family of a department store worker whose body remained in a locked bathroom for days after she died is suing the company. Relatives of 63-year-old Bessie Durham say they couldn’t even hold an open casket funeral because her body was so decomposed during the four days it remained in the bathroom at a Belk store in Columbia, South Carolina. The lawsuit says Durham, a cleaning worker, went into the family bathroom on a Thursday last September and died from a cardiac problem. Attorneys say the woman’s cleaning cart sat outside the locked door for days. The body was discovered after police called the store after Durham’s family reported her missing.