A North Carolina boat owner and her boyfriend, who was driving the boat while intoxicated, are facing murder charges after colliding with swimmers on a lake, killing a 10-year-old girl and seriously injuring her friend’s mother, authorities say.
On Monday, August 11, a grand jury indicted Quinten Kight, 40, and Annemarie Flanigan, 56, for second-degree murder in the death of Brooklyn Mae Carroll, 10, according to online court records.
The new charges stem from Saturday, Aug. 2, at 4:35 p.m., when Carroll, her friend, and the friend’s mother, Jennifer Stehle, 41, were swimming behind an anchored boat in Harris Lake in Chatham County, according to North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission Captain Nathan P. Green at a press conference on Thursday, August 7.
According to the arrest warrant obtained by PEOPLE, Kight drove the boat looking backward rather than forward and collided with the swimmers.
Kight was allegedly looking back at someone being pulled by his boat when his boat collided with the swimmers, Green claimed.
Carroll and Stehle “were struck by the boat’s propeller, causing serious and even fatal injuries,” he stated during the press conference.
Carroll died from her injuries that day, he said.
Stehle was severely injured and airlifted to the hospital, where she had her leg amputated below the knee, according to CBS 17 and ABC11.
According to the arrest warrant, Kight was arrested and initially charged with felony operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated, resulting in serious injury to another person.
Chatham County District Attorney Jeff Nieman stated in court on August 4 that investigators discovered 39 empty alcoholic seltzer cans in the boat.
On August 5, police arrested Flanigan, who was “present and on board” when Kight allegedly struck the swimmers, according to Green.
Intoxicated man crashes boat into group of swimmers, killing a 10-year-old girl and injuring a woman
She is also charged with one count of allowing Kight to drive the boat while impaired, which resulted in injury and death, as well as one count of aiding and abetting Kight in boating while impaired.
According to WRAL News, Kight is facing a hit-and-run charge from two years ago, as well as a DWI conviction from New Mexico in 2009.
A GoFundMe page was set up to help with Stehle’s medical expenses, and another to help Carroll’s parents with funeral and memorial arrangements.
Kight and Flanigan’s attorneys did not respond to requests for comment.
They are scheduled to appear in court in September.
A couple is accused of plowing a boat into swimmers while drunk, killing a 10-year-old girl. They are now facing murder charges
by Johnson
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