Widow blames faulty door, gas leak after Minnesota man found dead in stadium beer cooler

After a Minnesota man was found dead in a beer cooler at the Atlanta Braves' stadium, his widow is saying a faulty door mechanism and lethal carbon dioxide leaks are to blame.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 48-year-old Todd Keeling of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, had worked an overnight shift to install his beer tap invention at SunTrust Park when he died in June 2018. 

His widow, Angela Keeling, made the allegations in a wrongful death lawsuit filed against the team and its contractors.

According to the lawsuit, Keeling became trapped inside the cooler because the interior door mechanism failed to work. His body was found by a co-worker before a game against the Cincinnati Reds.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that, prior to Keeling's death, the stadium's builders received an email saying that there were "issues with the door release mechanisms in coolers throughout the stadium."

The lawsuit also states that the construction companies involved knew about carbon dioxide leaks in the coolers, but allowed them to go unfixed. The cooler Keeling died in lacked a functioning carbon dioxide monitor or alarm, the lawsuit states.