Wrongful Death Suit Advances Against Boater Who Killed Apex Girl, 10, at Harris Lake

A civil judge has set an August 2027 trial date in the wrongful death lawsuit filed by the parents of Brooklyn Carroll, the 10-year-old Apex girl killed last year when a boat plowed into her and another swimmer on Harris Lake in an incident prosecutors have attributed to a drunk boater. Wake County Superior Court Judge Bryan Collins heard arguments from multiple attorneys in the civil case, which names boat driver Quinten Kight, boat owner Annemarie Flanigan and other passengers as defendants.

According to WRAL, investigators say Kight, 40, was operating Flanigan's boat when it struck Carroll and fellow swimmer Jennifer Stehle in the water. Carroll was killed and Stehle was seriously injured, later undergoing a leg amputation. Authorities say Kight and Flanigan were in a romantic relationship at the time of the crash, and both now face second-degree murder charges following their indictment in Chatham County.

Kight faces a felony charge for operating a motor vessel while under the influence of an impairing substance and unintentionally causing another person's death, while Flanigan is charged with felony death by impaired boating, aiding and abetting boating while impaired, and serious injury via impaired boating. Authorities recovered 39 empty beer cans from the boat at the scene on Harris Lake, according to the same report.

What Happened on the Water

The collision took place on August 2, 2025, on the Shearon Harris Reservoir in Chatham County, when a wake boat struck swimmers who were cooling off in the water near their anchored Starcraft deck boat, according to Carolina Sportsman. Investigators with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission wrote in arrest warrants that an officer found Kight sitting on a nearby dock eating a sandwich shortly after the crash, where he showed glassy eyes and slurred speech and admitted to drinking hard seltzers before getting behind the wheel.

A civil lawsuit filed by the victims' families goes further, alleging that after the boat struck the swimmers and severed its propeller, Kight told passengers to “toss everything overboard,” prompting occupants to throw nearly 100 alcoholic beverage cans into the lake, according to Law & Crime. That allegation of destroyed evidence is now part of the contentious civil proceedings in Wake County Superior Court, separate from the 39 cans investigators say they actually recovered from the boat.

A History Behind the Wheel

At the time of the crash, Kight was out on bond for a pending 2023 felony hit-and-run charge in Moore County involving a struck motorcyclist, and he had a prior 2009 conviction for driving under the influence in New Mexico, per Law & Crime's reporting. He had been free on bond in the Moore County case for roughly 20 months before the Harris Lake tragedy occurred.

North Carolina law treats motor vehicle driving privileges and boating operations as legally distinct, meaning a pending motor vehicle charge or license issue does not automatically bar someone from operating a motorized vessel on state waters, according to a WRAL report. Boating while impaired is a Class 2 misdemeanor under Chapter 75A of state law and falls outside the implied-consent rules that govern standard driver's licenses.

The Legal Theory Against the Boat's Owner

Prosecutors have leaned on a 1947 North Carolina Supreme Court precedent, State v. Gibbs, to justify charging Flanigan even though she was not driving, according to the Ramsay Law Firm. That precedent holds that a vehicle or vessel owner present during an incident who knowingly allows an impaired person to operate it shares equal criminal liability with the person at the wheel.

Following their grand jury indictments for second-degree murder in Chatham County last August, both Kight and Flanigan were held under $1 million total secured bond each — $500,000 tied to the original impaired boating charges and another $500,000 added after the indictments, per Law & Crime. Prosecutors had previously argued Flanigan was a flight risk after jailhouse communications reportedly referenced plans to leave North Carolina.

Family Pushes for Safer Lakes

Two months after Carroll's death, her family established the Brooklyn May Carroll Foundation, partnering with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission to advocate for sober boating and to raise money equipping state boat ramps with emergency safety kits containing tourniquets, intended to treat severe injuries while responders are en route.

The tragedy also echoes concerns Wake County officials raised last year when they launched a “Swim Smart” public safety campaign, a push covered by Wake County's water safety push after 45 water-related emergency responses in 2024. That campaign encouraged boaters to choose sober drivers and appoint designated “water watchers,” and it covered access zones at regional lakes including Falls Lake and the Shearon Harris Reservoir. Nationally, alcohol remains the leading known factor in fatal boating accidents, accounting for 92 deaths — about 20 percent of total fatalities — in 2024, according to the U.S. Coast Guard's Recreational Boating Statistics report; propeller strikes separately caused 30 deaths and 158 injuries that same year.

With the civil trial now scheduled for August 2027, the criminal cases against Kight and Flanigan in Chatham County remain pending. For the Carroll family, the coming year will bring parallel fights in two different courtrooms over what happened on Harris Lake — and who should be held responsible for it.