Federal agents continue to probe the Saturday shooting death of a sailor at a Gulf Coast base but they’ve ruled out an assailant slaying her, according to officials in the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and Seabees.
“NCIS is investigating, but no foul play is suspected,” NCIS spokesman Adam Stump wrote in an email to Navy Times.
Originally from Oregon, Builder Constructionman Grace Kayla Davis-Marcheschi died early Saturday morning at a military housing development on Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi from what authorities described as a gunshot wound.
The Harrison County Coroner’s Office is coordinating with NCIS to complete an autopsy. Results will then be shared with federal investigators, the State Health Department and the State Medical Examiner in Jackson.
Although the 23-year-old Davis-Marcheschi reported to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 133 on Jan. 8, she recently had been posted to the security forces guarding the Naval Construction Battalion Center in Gulfport.
Davis-Marcheschi enlisted in the Navy on July 6, 2017 and graduated from both recruit training and her service school. She also graduated from the Center for Security Forces course on Dec. 21, 2017, shortly before joining her battalion in Mississippi.
The course teaches anti-terrorism, maritime interdiction and irregular warfare skills.
RELATED
Naval Construction Group 2 spokesman Senior Chief Jeff Pierce said that authorities have notified Davis-Marcheschi’s next of kin that she died.
Because the investigation continues, neither Navy nor Air Force officials would say whether the weapon that killed the Seabee belonged to her or the military.
Keesler Air Force Base rules allow residents in military housing to possess firearms as long as the weapons are registered with security forces. The guns must be stored in a locked safe with the ammunition kept in a separate safe.
Prine came to Navy Times after stints at the San Diego Union-Tribune and Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. He served in the Marine Corps and the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. His awards include the Joseph Galloway Award for Distinguished Reporting on the military, a first prize from Investigative Reporters & Editors and the Combat Infantryman Badge.
