{"id":235021,"date":"2026-05-14T22:13:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T22:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/235021\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T22:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T22:13:09","slug":"death-of-tavares-soldier-in-morocco-draws-reactions-from-central-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/235021\/","title":{"rendered":"Death of Tavares soldier in Morocco draws reactions from Central Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSpc. Mariyah Collington, a 19-year-old soldier from Central Florida, was found dead in a coastal cave in Morocco after being missing since May 2, the U.S. Army announced Tuesday. Moroccan military and civil personnel assisted in the massive search effort. &gt;&gt;Video below: US Army recovers, identifies 2nd missing soldier in Morocco as woman from Tavares&#8221;Certainly, there were upwards (of) 1,000 people, all kinds of equipment,&#8221; said Congressman Daniel Webster, R-Lake County, whose district includes Tavares, where Collington was from. Webster described Collington as having &#8220;a good, bright outlook on life and a good, bright outlook on her service in the military.&#8221; He also expressed hope that the U.S. military would provide answers to Collington\u2019s loved ones about the circumstances of her death, saying, &#8220;I&#8217;m sure they&#8217;ll do an investigation and get some facts that will bring some finality to it.&#8221; Before enlisting in the Army, Collington graduated from Evans High School in 2024. An Orange County School Board member shared that she was a two-year varsity cheerleader and participated in the school\u2019s nursing program. &#8220;Our hearts go out to you. A lot of people are praying for you,&#8221; Webster said when asked for his message to Collington\u2019s family. In a statement, Evans High School principal Kenya Nelson-Warren expressed the community\u2019s grief. &#8220;I know I speak for our entire Trojan family when I express the extreme grief we feel at the loss of one of our own,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Our deepest thoughts and prayers are with her family, friends, and all those she served with during this incredibly painful time.&#8221; Collington\u2019s family has requested privacy during this time.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tTAVARES, Fla. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Spc. Mariyah Collington, a 19-year-old soldier from Central Florida, was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wesh.com\/article\/us-army-identifies-soldier-morocco-woman-from-tavares\/71299369\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">found dead in a coastal cave in Morocco<\/a> after being missing since May 2, the U.S. Army announced Tuesday. <\/p>\n<p>Moroccan military and civil personnel assisted in the massive search effort. <\/p>\n<p>&gt;&gt;Video below: US Army recovers, identifies 2nd missing soldier in Morocco as woman from Tavares<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Certainly, there were upwards (of) 1,000 people, all kinds of equipment,&#8221; said Congressman Daniel Webster, R-Lake County, whose district includes Tavares, where Collington was from. <\/p>\n<p>Webster described Collington as having &#8220;a good, bright outlook on life and a good, bright outlook on her service in the military.&#8221; He also expressed hope that the U.S. military would provide answers to Collington\u2019s loved ones about the circumstances of her death, saying, &#8220;I&#8217;m sure they&#8217;ll do an investigation and get some facts that will bring some finality to it.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>Before enlisting in the Army, Collington graduated from Evans High School in 2024. An Orange County School Board member shared that she was a two-year varsity cheerleader and participated in the school\u2019s nursing program. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our hearts go out to you. A lot of people are praying for you,&#8221; Webster said when asked for his message to Collington\u2019s family. <\/p>\n<p>In a statement, Evans High School principal Kenya Nelson-Warren expressed the community\u2019s grief. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I know I speak for our entire Trojan family when I express the extreme grief we feel at the loss of one of our own,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Our deepest thoughts and prayers are with her family, friends, and all those she served with during this incredibly painful time.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>Collington\u2019s family has requested privacy during this time. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spc. Mariyah Collington, a 19-year-old soldier from Central Florida, was found dead in a coastal cave in Morocco&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[119142,109829,1718,119141,3982,119139,68153,165,4671,119144,18388,119140,111154,75380,119143],"class_list":{"0":"post-235021","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-morocco","8":"tag-bright-outlook","9":"tag-central-florida","10":"tag-death","11":"tag-evans-high-school","12":"tag-family","13":"tag-mariyah-collington","14":"tag-moroccan-military","15":"tag-morocco","16":"tag-people","17":"tag-r-lake-county","18":"tag-reaction","19":"tag-tavares-soldier","20":"tag-u-s-army","21":"tag-us-army","22":"tag-webster"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/116575234518247394","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}