SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) – Investigators suspect drug overdoses killed two Navy submarine sailors whose bodies were found in the same coastal Georgia house four days apart, a U.S. Navy spokeswoman said Wednesday.
Navy criminal investigators and civilian police are awaiting results of toxicology tests following the strange back-to-back deaths at an off-base home near Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base, said Cmdr. Sarah Self-Kyler, a spokeswoman for the Navy’s Submarine Forces Command in Norfolk, Virginia.
“It is our understanding from the initial reports that it is an apparent drug overdose for both sailors,” Self-Kyler said in an interview Wednesday.
Petty Officer 1st Class Brian Jerrell was found dead Oct. 12 on the floor inside a friend’s house in Kingsland, located near the Georgia-Florida state line about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Savannah. Friends had gone looking for Jerrell after the sailor’s wife reported him missing, Self-Kyler said.
Jerrell’s body was found in the home of Petty Officer 2nd Class Ty Bell. When Bell, 25, failed to report for duty at Kings Bay on Monday, concerned shipmates went to the house, Self-Kyler said. Inside, they discovered Bell was dead.