Was driver in deadly Harris Lake boat crash on his phone? What new warrants say

Newly released search warrants in a deadly boat crash on a Chatham County lake indicate the driver may have been on his phone in the moments before the incident.

Brooklyn Mae Carroll, 10, was killed and Jennifer Ann Stehle, 41, was seriously injured in the Aug. 2 wreck, which occurred as Carroll and Stehle were swimming in the water at Shearon Harris Lake.

Quinten Kight, 40, was driving the boat that struck the pair, and his girlfriend, 56-year-old Annemarie Flanigan, owned the vessel, officials said.

Kight and Flanigan were indicted on second-degree murder charges Monday, The News & Observer previously reported. Kight reportedly had a blood alcohol level of 0.14 at the time of the crash, and at least 39 empty hard seltzer cans were found in and around the boat, court documents show.

At least 10 people were aboard Kight’s boat at the time, including two minors, according to search warrants released this week. Officials have said Kight may have been distracted when two people wake boarding behind his boat fell into the water.

Those wake boarders were apparently filmed on the boaters’ cellphones in the minutes preceding the crash, search warrants state. Flanigan showed investigators a video she took of the wake boarders two minutes before the first 911 call was placed at 4:34 p.m., according to one warrant.

Additional videos shared with law enforcement by two others on the boat “showed multiple people involved in boating and tubing” and “the presence of what appeared ... to be alcoholic beverages throughout the videos,” another search warrant states. The videos had apparently been shared in a group text message thread “involving others who were present” on Kight’s boat that day, according to the warrant.

One of the boaters on board that day told police “while the incident took place, he turned to Kight who was operating and noticed him looking down toward the center of the vessel ... at his cellphone,” the warrant states.

Kight had reportedly admitted to law enforcement that no one on his boat was looking forward at the time of the crash and that he’d consumed at least two hard seltzers that day, The N&O previously reported.

Investigators have seized at least four cellphones, including Kight’s and Flanigan’s, as they continue their probe into the crash, according to court documents.

Kight also faces pending charges in Moore County from a 2023 crash and pleaded guilty in New Mexico in 2010 to driving while under the influence.

A scholarship fund has been established in Carroll’s honor; the fund had raised $11,828 of its $16,000 goal as of Thursday afternoon. Stehle remained in the hospital as of late last week, recovering from an amputation and orthopedic surgery, according to her Gofundme, which has raised almost $116,000.

This story was originally published August 14, 2025 at 2:35 PM with the headline "Was driver in deadly Harris Lake boat crash on his phone? What new warrants say."

Lexi Solomon

The News & Observer

Lexi Solomon joined The News & Observer in August 2024 as the emerging news reporter. She previously worked in Fayetteville at The Fayetteville Observer and CityView, reporting on crime, education and local government. She is a 2022 graduate of Virginia Tech with degrees in Russian and National Security & Foreign Affairs.