Couple Allegedly Plowed Boat Into Swimmers While Drunk, Killing a 10-Year-Old Girl — Now They Face Murder Charges  By KC Baker

A North Carolina boat owner and her boyfriend, who was driving the boat while intoxicated, are facing murder charges after crashing into swimmers on a lake — killing a 10-year-old girl and severely injuring her friend’s mother, authorities allege.

On Monday, Aug. 11, Quinten Kight, 40, and Annemarie Flanigan, 56, were indicted by a grand jury 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, North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission Captain Nathan P. Green said at a press conference on Thursday, Aug. 7.

While Kight was driving the boat, he looked backward instead of forward, and plowed into the swimmers, according to the arrest warrant obtained by PEOPLE.

Kight was allegedly looking back at someone being pulled by his boat when his boat careened toward the swimmers, Green said.

Carroll and Stehle “were struck by the boat’s propeller, causing serious and even fatal injuries,” he said at the press conference.

Carroll succumbed to her injuries that day, he said.

Stehle was severely injured and airlifted to the hospital, where her leg was amputated below the knee,  CBS 17 and ABC11 reported.

Kight was arrested and initially charged with felony operating a motor vessel while under the influence, unintentionally causing serious injury to another person, according to the arrest warrant.

Investigators allegedly found 39 empty alcoholic seltzer cans in the boat, Chatham County District Attorney Jeff Nieman said in court on Aug. 4.

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On Aug. 5, police arrested Flanigan, who was “present and on board” when Kight allegedly struck the swimmers, said Green.

She is also charged with one count of allowing Kight to drive the boat while impaired resulting in injury and death, and one count of aiding and abetting Kight in boating while impaired.

WRAL News reported that Kight has a pending hit-and-run charge from two years ago, and a previous DWI conviction in 2009 out of New Mexico. 

A GoFundMe page was created to help with Stehle’s medical costs, while another GoFundMe was set up to help Carroll’s parents with funeral expenses and memorial arrangements.

Attorneys for Kight and Flanigan could not immediately be reached for comment.

They are scheduled to return to court in September.