Warriors Walk on Fort Stewart memorializes the soldiers lost in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. (Elizabeth Clark/Army)
The deaths of a soldier and her family in their Fort Stewart residence on Wednesday were “domestic in nature,” officials at the Georgia Army post said Friday.
Staff Sgt. Meiziaha T. Cooper, her husband Desmond Cooper and their 4- and 9-year-old children were found dead after Fort Stewart military police were asked to conduct a well check Wednesday afternoon. Fort Stewart officials had previously said there was no threat to the community but declined to elaborate.
The Army Criminal Investigation Division and installation law enforcement officials were still investigating the deaths Friday and no further details would be released at this time, including the cause of death, according to Kevin Larson, a Fort Stewart spokesman. Post officials only categorized the deaths as “domestic.”
Staff Sgt. Cooper was a culinary noncommissioned officer who spent more than a decade in the Army, according to Fort Stewart officials. She enlisted in 2012 and had been awarded four Army Commendation Medals and six Army Achievement Medals.
Fort Stewart is just outside Hinesville, Ga., about 40 miles southwest of Savannah, and is home to the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division. The installation is the largest military reservation east of the Mississippi River.
The deaths come about one year after a soldier, Sgt. Nathan M. Hillman, was killed in a Fort Stewart barracks. Another soldier, Spc. Shay A. Wilson, was charged with murder in Hillman’s Dec. 12, 2022 shooting death.
