Patou M. Mpinda, 44, died early Monday at the Monmouth facility as workers later protested the decision to resume production.
MONMOUTH, Ill. — Dozens of employees left a Smithfield Foods meat-processing plant after a coworker died in a workplace incident, with some workers objecting to production continuing later that morning while the company said employees were free to leave without penalty.
Warren County Coroner Al McGuire identified the worker as Patou M. Mpinda, 44, of Monmouth. Mpinda died at about 2:31 a.m. Monday, Sept. 14, at the Smithfield facility. The coroner said a final cause of death had not been determined and toxicology results were still pending. McGuire said the death was believed to be work-related. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration and local authorities have opened investigations into what happened.
Smithfield initially delayed the plant’s opening following Mpinda’s death. Employees later told KWQC that they received a text message at about 5:30 a.m. announcing a late start. When workers arrived at about 7:30 a.m., many gathered in a lunchroom and learned that a coworker had died. One employee described coworkers crying and confronting plant management over whether production should continue after the fatal incident.
The employee told KWQC that management planned to resume production and said workers began leaving the facility. The worker estimated that at least 100 employees left during the day and described the departures as a plant-wide walkout. That estimate has not been independently confirmed. Smithfield offered a different characterization, saying employees were informed that they could take the day off and would not be penalized for doing so.
Smithfield said it understood the difficulty employees faced after learning of their coworker’s death and acknowledged that some workers chose to leave. The company said it was deeply saddened by Mpinda’s death and that its safety personnel were working with local authorities on the investigation. The plant returned to normal operations later Monday, according to local reporting.
Additional reporting provided more detail about how Mpinda was discovered. McGuire told the Peoria Journal Star that a maintenance crew searching for Mpinda found him at the plant early Monday. Smithfield described the death as resulting from a workplace incident, but authorities have not publicly released a final account of how the incident occurred. Reports from employees have referred to machinery, but the coroner has not announced an official cause of death. Investigators have not publicly determined whether any equipment failure, safety procedure or other factor contributed to Mpinda’s death.
The federal workplace investigation comes months after OSHA cited the same Monmouth facility for a serious safety violation involving hazardous-energy control procedures. OSHA records show the agency opened a complaint inspection on Feb. 19 after workers cleaning an auger in the plant’s Hammer Mill room were exposed to amputation hazards. The agency found that Smithfield had not ensured the equipment was locked out before an access cover was removed.
OSHA initially proposed a $14,188 penalty in that case. The penalty was later reduced to $9,931.60 through an informal settlement, and the agency’s records say the condition was corrected during the inspection. A final order was entered July 30. The February citation involved lockout and tagout procedures designed to prevent machinery from unexpectedly starting or releasing stored energy while employees perform certain work. Publicly available information does not establish a connection between that earlier violation and Mpinda’s death, and the fatal incident is being investigated separately.
Other OSHA records reviewed by local media show previous safety and health enforcement involving the Monmouth operation. A 2025 complaint inspection resulted in a serious hazard-communication violation, while investigations in earlier years produced additional citations. Those past cases provide regulatory history for the facility but do not establish what caused Monday’s fatal incident or whether Smithfield violated a workplace safety rule in connection with Mpinda’s death.
The disagreement over the events after Mpinda’s death centers on whether employees were effectively expected to continue working. Workers interviewed by KWQC said they believed management intended to proceed with production despite widespread distress inside the plant. Smithfield said employees were specifically told they could take the day off, and that many chose to do so. No public evidence reviewed for this report establishes that workers who left were disciplined.
OSHA has confirmed that its investigation remains open. The agency has said a federal workplace investigation can take up to six months to complete, and no findings or citations related to Mpinda’s death have been announced. The coroner’s final determination also remains pending as authorities await additional results. As of Sept. 18, investigators had not released a final cause of death or a definitive explanation of the circumstances that led to the fatal incident.
Author note: Last updated September 18, 2026.