Death of a Friend

You may have read about the boating accident on the national news that happened yesterday on Easter, well 2 of the people that were killed were people that work at the YMCA with me (my office is out of the YMCA). 1 of them was a friend of mine, Macu (Inmaculada Pierce) who would be 43 years old in a month. She was my Spanish friend at work. She knew that I was a member of the church and I talked with her about my mission and about the gospel. She had a daughter in high school. I wanted to share even more with her and even invited her to some church activities. It was sad seeing all the people at work while we shared memories and had a prayer circle to think that they do not know about the gospel and about eternal families. She was a beautiful person and I will miss her. You just never know when it is someone's time to go.


4 of 5 dead in Palm Valley boating accident from Jacksonville area
Federal, state investigators probing crash on Intracoastal Waterway

* By Jim Schoettler
* Story updated at 7:35 PM on Monday, Apr. 13, 2009

PALM VALLEY — An overloaded pleasure boat carrying a group of friends returning from a Sunday outing at a St. Augustine restaurant slammed into an anchored tugboat in the Intracoastal Waterway, killing five and leaving nine others injured.

Four of the dead are from the Jacksonville area, while the fifth is from California, according to information released at 5 p.m. by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

A criminal investigation is under way involving the commission, with a parallel but noncriminal probe being done by the National Transportation Safety Board. Authorities would not discuss the nature of the investigation, but will look at factors such as possible alcohol use, speed and the boat's occupancy.

Several witnesses saw a boat similar to the 22-foot Crownline leaving the Beach Marine marina, including one man who said people were boarding the craft loaded with alcohol. A man who said he believes he spoke with some of the boat's occupants at the Conch House restaurant in St. Augustine said he saw some of them sitting in a similar white, blue-striped boat apparently drinking. He also said some were slurring their words.

The boat was carrying 14 people but has an occupancy maximum of 12, according to the company's Web site.

The tragedy has devastated families and friends of the victims from coast to coast. At least seven were from the Jacksonville area, while five were from California visiting those friends. They were returning to the Beach Marine marina from a visit to the Conch House when the accident occurred, a close friend said.

Among the dead is Robert Trenton Craig, 23, of Jacksonville Beach. His brother, Jason Martin, said Craig moved from California to the Jacksonville area about a year ago and cherished spending time with his friends.

"He was too young to have this happen to him," said Martin, 32, of Santa Rosa, Calif.

Also dead is Olivia Carretero, 23, of California, who came to Florida Friday with two close girlfriends to be with the group. It was Carretero's first visit to Florida, said her father, Henry Carretero, also of Santa Rosa.

"She was just a great person," Carretero said. "She just like to have fun with her friends and everyone she knew loved her."

Other fatalities identified by authorities this afternoon are: Jacqeline Allen, 44, of Jacksonville; Elisabeth Rosenfeld, 20, from Ponte Vedra Beach; and Inmaculada Pierce, 42, of Orange Park.

Six people are recovering at Shands Jacksonville hospital. Two are in critical condition, one in serious and three are listed as fair, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Joy Hill of Fish and Wildlife identified the boat's owner as Melvin Don Bethel, 37, of Ponte Vedra Beach. Bethel was aboard the 22-foot Crownline when the 7:15 p.m. accident occurred a mile north of the Palm Valley bridge in St. Johns County. Bethel was not driving the boat, said a friend of the group. Hill would not discuss who was driving the boat. Bethel was hospitalized, but his condition is unknown.

One victim listed in fair condition is Jaimie Hole, who came to Florida with Carretero. Another hospitalized is Karey Cavicchioli, a 19-year-old University of North Florida student who suffered multiple injuries, said her father, Dino Cavicchioli.

Others injured were: Justin Moore, 23, of Ponte Vedra Beach; Brittney Joyce, 19, of Jacksonville Beach; Amanda Barto, 23, of Santa Rosa; Josh Moore, 18, of California; Frank Moore, age unknown, of California; Jacqueline Collins, 23, of Ponte Vedra Beach.

Cavicchioli said his daughter only remembers waking up in the hospital. He said when she began asking about the accident and whether everyone survived, a priest and grief counselor were brought to her side to pray as she was given the news.

"My heart goes out to the other families," said Cavicchioli of Palm City. "I can't imagine if I had gotten the call last night saying she was dead."

It's unclear whether the other three survivors are hospitalized.

The boat hit the 25-foot tug at high tide in part of the man-made channel that's no more than 100 yards wide, said U.S. Coast Guard spokesman Bobby Nash.

Hill declined to say whether alcohol was found on the boat or if anyone aboard had been drinking. The boat left from the Beach Marine marina at Beach Bouelvard and the Intracoastal Sunday morning and was on its way back north when the accident occurred.

Witnesses reported that a similar white boat with a blue stripe, whose passengers were spotted with bottles of vodka and dozens of beers, left the same marina Sunday morning in the direction of St. Augustine. It's unknown if the boats were the same.

Authorities did not say when the boat launched from Beach Marine. Allen Oshier, a friend of the group, told the Times-Union his friends called him about 11 a.m. to go for the ride and then at 3 p.m. to meet them at the Conch House. Oshier, 25, of Jacksonville Beach, said he told them he slept late and declined both offers.

Oshier said he wasn't sure he'd consider himself lucky by not going.

"It’s just a sad moment,” Oshier said. “We can do nothing but just pray for the people who are still alive.”

Robert Whidden said he was at the Conch House Sunday and met whom he believes were the accident victims. Whidden, 24, said he met a woman about his age or younger who introduced him to girlfriends from California. He said there were several people on a blue and white boat, similar to that involved in the crash and that they appeared to be drinking. He recalled some were slurring their words.

"The boat I'm talking about was loaded down with a bunch of people," he said. "The girls were running around having fun.

The area where the accident occurred also doesn't have a speed limit, though authorities can stop speeding boats driving recklessly. It is also not part of a manatee zone, where boats are required to slow to not leave a wake, Nash said.

The National Transportation Safety Board is sending a "go-team" of investigators to help the commission investigate. The federal agency probes any commercial transportation accident.

Several neighbors began rescue efforts before emergency personnel arrived by forming a brigade to lay a makeshift bridge of plywood on the half-built dock, which only had a wood frame, said neighbor Dale Shaw.

Shaw said she was in her kitchen, heard a loud boom like a gun going off and joined neighbors who ran to the scene. They found the boat smashed into the tugboat and began helping.

“The first [victim] off the boat walked,” Shaw said. “Then one more guy walked off.”

They found the plywood lying nearby.

“Luckily there was exactly just enough,” Shaw said. “It’s amazing what you can do when people need help.”

Shaw tended to the two walking wounded, who told her they were in St. Augustine earlier in the day and met two of the other victims for the first time.

Oshier and family members of some of the victims said the group all knew each other for some time, many from growing up in California. Carretero arrived in town Friday with two childhood friends, while a father and son were also from California, said Oshier, who spent most of the night and morning at Shands with 20 other friends awaiting word on their pals.

The group had attended an afternoon of reggae music, a popular event known as Reggae Sunday at the restaurant. It's something many of the friends had been doing every Sunday for at least month, Oshier said.

While at the restaurant, the group picked up two people who they took back with them, Oshier said he was told by a survivor. Oshier said he was told one of those boat hoppers was a woman who was driving when the accident occurred.

Oshier said the 14 were riding in a boat with a capacity of 12 occupants. He said the group had previously always had a designated driver and insured that there were enough life jackets aboard to meet the boat’s capacity. He said the boat had been stopped several times in the past month by police, who were concerned about seeing so many people aboard and whether they had sufficient life jackets. Oshier said there had been no trouble.

As for the accident, Oshier said he was told the boat came "around" after passing the Palm Valley bridge and the wreck happened moments later. There is no real bend in the area of the accident. That area is a straight-away known by boaters as "the ditch" because the man-made channel narrows.

The boat struck the tug, which was alongside a barge that was helping build a dock for a home under construction. Oshier said a friend of his on the boat was alerted about trouble just before the crash.

“He said the lady yelled my friend’s name and he looked up and they were heading right for it,” Oshier said. “He tried to steer away, but it was too late.”

Carretero, one of the three women from California, was visiting Florida for the first time, her father said.

Martin, 32, of Santa Rosa, said he just saw his brother two days ago when Craig left him and other family after visiting them in Santa Rosa for a week. He said they played games and caught up on missed time.

Martin said his brother returned home to Jacksonville to attend the gathering. Martin said his brother was single and worked in the area while also traveling frequently.

"He was carefree, hilarious, spontaneous," Martin said. "He was always there for his friends."

Henry Carretero said his daughter and two friends left California Friday for the Jacksonville area to spend time with friends they grew up with on the West Coast. Carretero was told his daughter's friends called their parents to say they were OK after the accident, but he hadn't heard from his daughter. He learned hours later from the Medical Examiner's Office that she had died, he said.

Carretero said his daughter, Hole and another friend knew each other since they were in elementary school in Santa Rosa. He said they recently came home after working together for about five months at a ski resort in Lake Tahoe.

"They were inseparable," Carretero said.

Carretero said his daughter aspired to work in the pharmacutical industry. She is from a large family, including a 5-year-old sister, he said.

"I know they are going to miss her terribly," Carretero said.

Rosenfeld, known as Liz, was a UNF junior who transferred from Florida State University, said Maggie Mahany, a friend. The women were friends from Nease High School, where Rosenfeld played on the basketball team and was a member of many service clubs.

"She was just so outgoing, the type of person who never seemed in a bad mood," said Mahany, 19.

Mahany said she and some friends plan to scatter flowers near the accident site later Monday in memory of those lost, including the petite Rosenfeld, whom Mahany said, "was the type of person that was just llke, loved by everybody.

"A woman at Shands when the victims were being brought in, mostly by helicopter, said she saw many people in tears as they were arriving behind the victims. Vanessa Harden of St. Marys, Ga., was in the emergency room to look after her husband, who was injured in an ATV accident.

"They were pulling them in left and right and then the helicopters were coming in constantly," Harden said.

Jeremy Robshaw, a St. Johns County Fire Department spokesman, said rescuers were troubled by the loss of life but took pride in being able to help most of the boat occupants.

"You obviously prepare for this and I think we did the best we could," he said.

Read jacksonville.com and Tuesday's Times-Union for updates

Staff writers Adam Aasen, Drew Dixon, Tim Gibbons, Larry Hannan, Bridget Murphy, Tia Mitchel, Steve Patterson and Dana Treen contributed to this story.