Man charged in deadly Boston Harbor boat crash investigation
A man has been charged months after a deadly Boston Harbor boat crash, the Suffolk County district attorney announced Tuesday.
Elizabeth "Lizzie" Dankert, 24, of Andover, Massachusetts, was killed in the crash back on May 13 in East Boston. Two of her friends were seriously injured.
Suffolk D.A. Kevin Hayden said 40-year-old Lawrence Shieh, a Seaport resident, has been indicted on charges that include involuntary manslaughter, operating a boat while intoxicated causing death, using a boat without authority and violating security at Logan Airport. He is set to appear in court on Wednesday.
Hayden said Dankert and two other women boarded the boat with Shieh in the Seaport late that night. It crashed around 11:20 p.m. into a pier near a Logan Airport runway, throwing the passengers onto the rocks that lined the shore. All four on board were taken to Massachusetts General Hospital. Dankert died a short time later.
Shieh's blood alcohol content level after the crash was 0.20, Hayden said, more than twice the legal limit.
The Freedom Boat Club said it owned the vessel and that it was taken "without authorization" after the club had closed for the day. Shieh was a member there, but the club prohibits boating at night, Hayden said.
A Freedom Boat Club spokesperson released a statement Tuesday.
"We are aware of today's indictment and continue to cooperate fully with law enforcement and other authorities as their investigation proceeds," the spokesperson said. "As we have previously stated, the individual was not authorized to use the vessel, which was taken without permission after the club had closed for the day. The individual was terminated as a member of Freedom Boat Club."
Cellphone video captured before the crash showed that Shieh was not paying attention while operating the boat, Hayden said.
"Approximately six seconds before the crash, Shieh is captured on video with both hands off the wheel of the boat," he said.
The boat was in a prohibited area when it crashed head-on into the pier by the runway. It was going 36 mph at the time of the crash, Hayden said, which he characterized as a "dangerously excessive speed for the area."
"He was intoxicated. He unlawfully took a boat out into Boston Harbor in the dead of night," Hayden said. "He drove that boat at a reckless speed in a restricted area of the Boston Harbor. He did this with three young women on board, placing their lives in imminent danger."
A "heroic" rescue effort followed, Hayden said, with first responders navigating slippery rocks to reach the boaters.
Dankert played soccer for Union College in Schenectady, New York, before graduating in 2024. She worked for software company PTC in Boston.
"There is some measure of relief in finally learning what happened that fateful night and seeing that the wheels of justice are in motion," an attorney for the Dankert family told WBZ-TV in a statement, "But they intend to focus their attention primarily on the seemingly insurmountable tasks of learning to go on without their beloved daughter, Lizzie, and trying to honor the way she lived (with positivity and joy) rather than the way she died."
