KEY LARGO, Fla. – Prosecutors provided an update Monday on a boat crash off Key Largo that left a woman dead and three others badly hurt Friday evening.
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Officials with the Monroe County State Attorney’s Office said alcohol was likely a “contributing factor” in the crash and authorities are accusing the operator’s son of attacking a senior after the crash in Buttonwood Sound.
Authorities said Guy Erdman, 61, of Oakland Park, was operating a 21-foot Century Bay motorboat and struck an anchored sailboat, ejecting all four passengers on the motorboat.
Sydney Cole, 24, of Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina, was found dead in the water. Another passenger, a 58-year-old Oakland Park woman identified as Lillian Cairo, was airlifted to a Miami-Dade hospital in critical condition.
No one on the sailboat was hurt.
Erdman “appeared severely intoxicated,” Chief Assistant State Attorney Joseph Mansfield said. “Alcohol seems to have been a contributing factor in this devastating event.”
Erdman has not been charged “as of yet,” authorities said. That’s not the case for his son.
According to prosecutors, Christopher Erdman, 31, of Carthage, North Carolina, boarded the sailboat after the crash and attacked someone on board.
That victim, a 71-year-old Yorktown, Virginia man, wasn’t seriously hurt in the attack, prosecutors said. But they said it led to the younger Erdman’s arrest by state wildlife officers on charges of aggravated assault and battery on a person 65 or older early Saturday morning.
Jail records show Christopher Erdman was released from the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office Key West jail facility that evening after posting a $30,000 bond.
“This tragedy underscores the dangers of boating under the influence,” Mansfield said. “The investigation is ongoing, and we are working diligently to ensure justice is served.”
According to the SAO news release, authorities are looking into whether to file additional charges.