Cause of death revealed for trucker after hazmat response in Arkansas grocery store parking lot

Authorities have provided new information on the cause of death for a truck driver found in his parked truck in a grocery store parking lot in Arkansas in November 2023.

On Monday, November 20, the body of 35 year old Georgia-based truck driver Mohammed Keita was found inside a parked truck at a Harp’s grocery store in Mansfield, Arkansas.

Keita had reportedly been inside the truck parked on the lot for three days before he was found.

Keita’s company requested a welfare check and told authorities that he “had recently been out of the country, and possibly had an illness.”

A hazmat team was deployed to respond to the parked truck.

Travis Cooper, Sebastian County Emergency Management officer, reported shortly after the body was discovered that Keita was in Mansfield to pick up a load of lumber but never arrived at the facility.

On January 4, 2024, Mansfield Police released autopsy results indicating that Keita passed away from cerebral malaria due to a mosquito-borne parasite called plasmodium falciparum.

4029TV reports that Keita had travelled overseas to Africa and returned to the U.S. on November 13. He was treated for an illness at a hospital in Ponca City, Oklahoma, on November 16. At that time, he tested negative for COVID-19, influenza, pneumonia, and SARS.

Keita was released from the hospital and died on November 17.