A North Carolina boat owner and her drunk boyfriend were indicted this week on charges related to a boat crash in Chatham County earlier this month that killed a 10-year-old girl and seriously injured her friend’s mother.
Quinten Kight, 40, and Annemarie Flanigan, 56, have been charged with second degree murder and other charges in connection with the death of 5th grader Brooklyn Mae Carroll, according to the Raleigh News & Observer.
Carroll, her friend, and the friend’s mother, 41-year-old Jennifer Stehl, were swimming behind an anchored boat on Harris Lake on August 2 when another boat, driven by Kight and owned by Flanigan, careened into them. Carroll was killed and Stehl was rushed to a hospital, where her leg was amputated, as CrimeOnline previously reported.
Court documents say investigators found 39 empty hard seltzer cans on Flanigan’s boat and that Kight “had a strong odor of alcohol on his breath, had red, glassy eyes, and his speech was hard to understand.” Flanigan was in the boat at the time.
In addition to the murder charges, Kight faces charges relating to injuring Stehl and operating a boat recklessly while impaired. Flanigan also faces charges of allowing Kight to operate her boat while drunk and aiding and abetting him while he drove the boat.
North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission Captain Nathan P. Green said at a news conference the victims were struck by the propeller of Flanigan’s boat as Kight looked back, watching an inner tube he was pulling.
A statement from Carroll’s family after the fatal crash said that the girl “had a uniquely goofy, wonderfully weird sense of humor that could brighten anyone’s day, and it was a part of what made her so unforgettable.”
Stehle’s family said that Jennifer, a Wake County Public School System social worker, remains hospitalized and will be for some time.
“We will continue to seek change in North Carolina’s boating laws to protect swimmers and families,” Kristie Stehle said. “And we pray no one else will ever have to walk the road we’re on today.”
