An anonymously sourced news report says a cause of death has been determined in the nebulous Feb. 19 death of a soldier deployed in Africa: a snake bite.

The Stars and Stripes article published Friday said an autopsy of Pfc. Jerome Bailey Swaggart indicated fang bites on his leg and venom in his system, revealing the cause of death.

The Army remains mum amid an ongoing investigation into the death by Criminal Investigation Command investigation into the death.

"I can tell you that at this point in the investigation we don't have any evidence of foul play, but have not completely ruled it out in order to conduct a complete and thorough death investigation. We also do not suspect any type of hostile fire," Grey said. "I don't have any confirmation of a snake bite, but we are looking at all possibilities."

Swaggart, home-based at Fort Bliss, Texas, was deployed as a member of 1st Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 77th Armored Regiment in support of Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa.

The Stars and Stripes story published Friday cited unnamed Army "officials" who were not authorized to discuss the matter. Those officials said the bite was thought to be from a viper or a black mamba. The Army has not confirmed the location of the incident, but the story said Swaggart had been assigned to guard an airfield at Manda Bay Naval Base in Kenya. The report said he set out in a Humvee to investigate a small brush fire just before his death.

The Army has yet to confirm or deny any timeline or sequence of events surrounding Swaggart's death, or whether anyone was with him.

An Army news release said Swaggart had earned the National Defense Service Medal and Army Service Ribbon. He joined the Army in 2013 as an infantryman and trained at Fort Benning, Georgia. He had been deployed to Africa since January.

East Africa hosts a variety of highly venomous snakes. The puff adder (a type of viper) and the black mamba are particularly lethal.

A black mamba bite has the potential to kill within as little as about 20 minutes, according to National Geographic. The puff adder is believed to kill more people than any other snake in Africa, according to National Geographic, but that is due less to the comparative lethality of the bite than the snake's prevalence, effective camouflage and tendency to not move away from approaching humans before aggressively attacking.

Share:
In Other News
Load More