CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Nueces County Medical Examiner has identified 33-year-old Aisha I. Lopez as the woman who snuck in behind a truck that was entering a secure area of City Hall before climbing on top of an air-conditioning system.
The woman was found dead inside of the AC chiller system at Corpus Christi's City Hall early Friday morning, according to CCPD officials.
Authorities told 3NEWS the woman is suspected to have been homeless.
City Manager Peter Zanoni said the woman had been trying to get into City Hall since 6 a.m. Eventually, the woman snuck in behind a city truck driving into the secured loading dock and got to the chiller.
"We do have security here at City Hall and they could see the event happening as well and called the police when the situation was taking place," he said. "The event of climbing the ladder into the area where the top of the cooling tower, that all spanned just a few minutes."
Around 10 a.m., CCFD was on the scene working to remove the body from the unit.
"It was not too difficult, it's not very deep in there," Deputy Fire Chief Doug Matthijetz said. "It was more of a reach over to get her to get the body out."
He said the body was mostly intact.
3NEWS climbed the same steps the woman did to take a look inside of the unit. It was a very small enclosure with huge blades that were turning at a rapid speed when she ended up in there.
"It has two massive turbines with big, big blades that have high-power velocity to spin to pre-cool the water it's quite possible the blades probably were the cause of death," Zanoni said.
The incident caused a total shutdown of the air-conditioning system and City Hall employees were told they could work from home. However, the city secretary and utility billing offices remained open for business on the first floor.
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