Suspect in deadly Boston Harbor boat crash that killed 24-year-old woman pleads not guilty

The suspect in a deadly boat crash in Boston Harbor that killed a 24-year-old woman pleaded not guilty to several charges Wednesday morning.

Lawrence Shieh, 40, of Boston, was taken into custody pending bail.

Shieh was indicted Tuesday morning by a Suffolk County grand jury on one count of involuntary manslaughter, one count of operating a boat while intoxicated causing death, two counts of operating a boat while intoxicated causing serious bodily injury, one count of using a boat without authority, and one count of a Logan Airport security violation

The late-night crash near a Logan Airport runway on May 13 claimed the life of Elizabeth Dankert, of Andover, and injured two of her friends.

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Shieh struck up a conversation with Dankert and two of her friends, also in their 20s, after his friends left the ReelHouse and convinced them to take a boat ride with them, Hayden said.

Shieh, a member of the Freedom Boat Club, took the vessel from a Seaport dock, even though club rules prohibit boating at night.

According to cellphone videos, Hayden alleged that Shieh was inattentive at the helm, dancing, and taking his hands off the wheel in the seconds before the crash.

Hayden said Shieh crashed nearly head-on into a pier in an area forbidden to boating, throwing everyone onboard onto rocks lining the shore near the runway.

First responders were forced to navigate down a slope of slippery, seaweed-covered jetty boulders to reach Shieh and the three women, before rushing them to shore to awaiting ambulances, according to Hayden.

Dankert suffered a “devastating” head injury, causing her death, Hayden said. Her two friends suffered multiple non-life-threatening injuries.

Dankert is a former student at Union College, where she played soccer, and a 2020 graduate of Central Catholic High School in Lawrence.

Shieh is scheduled to be back in court on Oct. 8.

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