An undertaker was crushed to death by a faulty coffin lifter after it descended unexpectedly onto her, an inquest concluded.
Grandmother Sally Blundell, 58, was found crushed underneath a scissor lift used to move bodies from cold storage at a branch of the East of England Co-op Funeral Services.
The funeral administrator had been working alone at the branch in Swaffham, Norfolk in December 2023 when she was crushed by the faulty machine.
A colleague from a neighbouring branch found her body trapped in the lift, but her glasses were found on the floor next to the machine.
The coroner earlier told the hearing it was not known why Mrs Blundell had 'inserted herself' into the frame of the device.
Jurors returned a conclusion of accidental death after hearing evidence at an inquest in Norwich.
She died at some point between 9.46am, when she was last seen on CCTV, and 12.06pm, when she was found.
The inquest heard earlier that there were no CCTV cameras in the areas of the funeral parlour where bodies are kept.
Sally Blundell, 58, was found crushed to death by a scissor lift at the East of England Co-op Funeral Services branch in Swaffham, Norfolk, on December 1 2023
Concerns were raised after a woman who had made an appointment to see a deceased relative at the branch found there were no staff at the funeral parlour.
She called the celebrant she dealt with, who passed on her message. A colleague from the Dereham branch then visited and found Mrs Blundell dead.
Stephen Kemp, who works at the Dereham branch, then rang emergency services on December 1, 2023.
Police officer Luke Heffer previously told the court that Mrs Blundell was found in the back room of the parlour where she was 'trapped in the scissor lift', lying across a bar and with the upper part of her body inside the frame.
The medical cause of death for Mrs Blundell, of Great Cressingham, was recorded as 'contusion and compression of the chest by an external object'.
Mrs Blundell's daughter, Lucy Blundell, said in a statement: 'I understand she had raised concerns about lone working.'
An engineer previously told the jury inquest into the funeral administrator and grandmother's death that a spring in the hydraulic lift - which closes a valve to stop the table lowering - had become 'plastically deformed'.
In an expert report, Dr Eleanor Jay said Mrs Blundell may have let go of the handle on the device to reach something under the table.
The grandmother was found at the East of England Co-op Funeral Services branch in Swaffham, Norfolk on December 1 2023
Sally Blundell (centre), 58, was working alone at the branch in Swaffham, Norfolk in December 2023 when she was accidentally crushed by the faulty machine an inquest heard
Paul Bradbury, senior food and safety officer at Breckland Council, which investigated the incident, said Mrs Blundell was found 'trapped in the mechanism of the mortuary hydraulic pump lift'.
The 200kg hydraulic scissor lift mortuary trolley, manufactured in 2008, was sent to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for examination.
Norfolk area coroner Yvonne Blake told jurors that expert evidence indicated a fault was found with the hydraulic scissor lift mortuary trolley after Mrs Blundell's death.
She concluded that the trolley 'descended unexpectedly'.
The coroner said she was considering writing to the equipment's manufacturer A R Twigg and Son with her concerns about this issue in a Prevention of Future Deaths report.
Barrister Dominic Kay for the East of England Co-op told the coroner that the chain no longer uses this type of trolley.