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Arlana Miller, a freshman college cheerleader, died this week after sharing an alarming post on her Instagram account, Southern University and A&M College confirmed in an official statement shared on Thursday.
"Our entire campus community is deeply saddened by the untimely death of Arlana Miller, a freshman who was majoring in agriculture on the Baton Rouge campus," President-Chancellor Ray L. Belton, Pd.D. said in a statement shared on the school's Facebook account Thursday (May 5). Arlana was a native of Texas and one of our Southern University cheerleaders. We offer our sincerest prayers and condolences to her family, classmates, teammates, and all who knew and loved her.
The school didn't provide specific information on Miller's cause of death.
The Southern University and A&M College athletic department confirmed Miller's death took place after sharing a post on social media "which ultimately led to this unfortunate announcement," in a statement shared on its verified Twitter account.
Miller shared a final Instagram post -- which was removed from her page but has circulated online in the form of screenshots -- in which she talked about death and having a history of suicidal thoughts, as well as struggles over the past year with COVID-19 and tearing her ACL, NBC News reports.
Miller's death comes a concerning recent trend of reported deaths by suicide amount NCAA female athletes.
Last month, James Madison University softball catcher Lauren Bernett was reported to have died of an apparent suicide at the age of 20 just days after being named as the Colonial Athletic Association's Player of the Week and months removed propelling the softball team to a Women's College World Series tournament appearance last season.
Sarah Shulze, a member of the University of Wisconsin's women's track and field and cross-country teams, was reported to have died by suicide earlier this month at the age of 21, NBC News reported on Monday (April 25).
Shulze, of Oak Park, California, earned Academic All-Big Ten honors for the 2020 and 2021 cross country seasons, as well as 2021 for track.
In March, the parents of Stanford Women's Soccer goalie Katie Meyer revealed their daughter had died by suicide during an emotional interview with NBC's TODAY Show.
Meyer, 22, a senior majoring in International Relations and minoring in History, was a team captain for the Cardinal, guiding Stanford to a 2019 national championship as a redshirt freshman.
If you or someone you know is at risk of suicide please call the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255, text HOME to 741741 or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional resources.