NIGHTTIME RESCUE DISPATCH: Investigators expose harrowing efforts to pull two unresponsive siblings from Barnegat Bay after fatal boat impact
Chilling new details have emerged from official investigative records detailing the desperate moments immediately following a catastrophic nighttime powerboat crash in Barnegat Bay. Sixty-four-year-old Stephen Schneider was navigating his thirty-foot recreational craft under heavy alcoholic impairment when the vessel collided violently with a fixed channel marker. Newly released incident reports illuminate the harrowing scene on the water as family members mounted immediate rescue attempts in pitch darkness.
The violent impact instantly launched Schneider’s two grandchildren, nine-year-old Mya Golabek and seven-year-old Sigmund Golabek, over the gunwales into the dark coastal channel. Realizing the gravity of the disaster, the panicked grandfather and his wife immediately leaned over the fractured hull into the water. Schneider reportedly used his bare hands to physically haul both young victims back onto the damaged deck amidst screams for emergency assistance.
Despite the frantic retrieval efforts by the grandparents, both children exhibited catastrophic trauma and remained completely unresponsive upon being brought aboard. Attending emergency maritime paramedics and local rescue units arrived at the scene shortly thereafter to initiate advanced resuscitation protocols. Medical authorities transported both siblings to a regional medical center, where attending physicians formally pronounced both children deceased from severe blunt impact injuries.
Subsequent forensic testing conducted by state law enforcement established that Schneider was operating the motorized watercraft with a blood alcohol concentration measuring approximately 0.16 percent. That level stands at double the statutory limit recognized under New Jersey marine navigational law. Marine safety specialists emphasized that severe intoxication drastically degrades spatial perception, peripheral vision, and rapid vessel maneuvering, especially during nighttime channel navigation.
State prosecutors subsequently filed formal criminal complaints charging Schneider with two counts of reckless vessel homicide arising from the fatal double impact. Defense counsel argued during preliminary hearings that the defendant remains utterly broken by the loss of his own flesh and blood, noting his immediate, instinctive attempt to pull them from the water. Judicial authorities ultimately granted conditional pretrial release following written requests submitted directly by the deceased children’s grieving parents.
The heartbreaking rescue disclosures have amplified public discussions regarding recreational marine enforcement and alcohol prohibition on coastal waterways. For the extended family and local coastal residents, the newly revealed logs capture an insurmountable domestic nightmare that permanently destroyed two innocent young lives. As criminal proceedings advance through the state court system, the harrowing memory of that nighttime rescue continues to cast a dark shadow over Barnegat Bay.
