A New Jersey mother has turned herself in to face charges that she drunkenly crashed her boat and killed her adult son on Memorial Day.
Jennifer Pearson, 59, of Barnegat, surrendered to state police on Thursday after toxicology tests showed her blood alcohol level was between.09 and.12, just over the legal limit of.08, according to court documents obtained by NJ101.5. She is accused of slamming her 23-foot center console into a channel marker in Barnegat Bay near the Brant Beach Yacht Club in Long Beach around 5:45 p.m. On May 25.
The impact sent her son, Gunnar Pearson, 28, and his girlfriend flying into the water. Gunnar and his girlfriend were rushed in critical condition to a local hospital, where he later died from his injuries. Four others onboard were hospitalized with minor injuries.
Pearson now faces a charge of death by vessel, operating a vessel under the influence, reckless operation of a vessel, operating a vessel without a boating safety certificate, and failure to have a proper lookout. She is being held at the Ocean County jail pending a detention hearing.
The fatal crash is one of four boating deaths on Barnegat Bay this year — all involving boats striking channel markers, which indicate where the deepest waters are for boaters. Barnegat Bay is notoriously shallow.
In the viral moment that has drawn national attention to the Jersey Shore waterway, another allegedly drunk boater killed two young grandchildren in the same bay just weeks later. On July 19, sister and brother Mya Golabek, 9, and Sigmund Paul Golabek, 7, were killed when their grandfather — who was also allegedly drunk — hit a channel marker in Barnegat Bay off Bayville while they were returning from dinner at night. Stephen Schneider, 64, who was charged with double homicide last week, had a BAC of.16 — double the legal limit, cops said. The children’s father, Schneider’s son-in-law, pleaded for a judge to release him from jail, and a judge approved his release on Wednesday.
In yet another crash, Michael T. Bereheiko, 26, of Green Brook, was killed when a 32-foot Boston whaler carrying five people hit a channel marker off Toms River on July 26, according to NJ101.5. No charges have been filed in that crash.
Police said the fatal Memorial Day crash remains under investigation. Pearson’s detention hearing has not yet been scheduled.