By Delayna Earley
The Island News
There have been no new details released in the death of 21-year-old recruit from Decatur, Ga., on Tuesday, April 18, 2023, aboard Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island.
In a press release issued on Wednesday, April 19, officials said that Pfc. Noah Evans died during a physical fitness test.
Evans was a recruit assigned to the Mike Company, 3rd Recruit Training Battalion, Recruit Training Regiment. He was posthumously made a private first class.
Evans’ cause of death is currently under investigation, according to the release.
His death was also confirmed by Beaufort County coroner David Ott.
According to The Daily Mail, a celebration of life ceremony will be held for the young soldier with visitation at the family’s home in Ellenwood, Georgia all week.
On Friday, there will be a viewing and a wake at Gregory B. Levett & Sons Funeral Home followed by the funeral on Sunday at First Iconium’s Baptist Church and burial at Kennedy Memorial Gardens.
This is the fourth death that has occurred at Parris Island in the past two years.
Pfc. Dalton Beals, 19, of Pennsville, N.J., died of hyperthermia in June 2021 while completing the Crucible, which is the last part of a recruit’s training at Parris Island.
The Crucible is a physically taxing 54-hour exercise that recruits are required to complete before becoming Marines.
Beals’ drill, Staff Sgt. Steven Smiley, was charged with negligent homicide in November 2022 after an investigation discovered that Smiley did not follow protocols to stop training due to extreme heat on the day Beals died.
Pvt. Anthony Muñoz, 21, of Lawrence, Mass., died in September 2021 after falling from a balcony in an apparent suicide according to MCRD Parris Island officials.
Pfc. Brandon Barnish, 26, of Evans, Ga., was found dead in September 2021 at the training depot.
Delayna Earley lives in Beaufort with her husband, two children and Jack Russell. She spent six years as a videographer and photographer for The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette before leaving the Lowcountry in 2018. After freelancing in Myrtle Beach and Virginia, she joined The Island News when she moved back to Beaufort in 2022. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.
