Boston man indicted for causing death of 24-year-old Lizzie Dankert in Boston Harbor boat crash

A 40-year-old Boston man was indicted Tuesday in connection with the Boston Harbor boat crash that killed 24-year-old Elizabeth “Lizzie” Dankert of Andover in May, prosecutors announced. 

Lawrence Shieh allegedly met Dankert and two of her friends at a Seaport bar before offering them a ride on a boat from a nearby marina. Shieh was allegedly intoxicated that night. He crashed the boat into a pier, killing Dankert, Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden announced. 

Shieh was indicted by a Suffolk County grand jury. He was charged with 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 an airport security violation. Shieh turned himself in to authorities Tuesday and is expected to be arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court Wednesday morning, prosecutors said. 

“His reckless actions that night ended one life and dramatically changed three others, including his own,” Hayden said. 

On the night of May 13, Shieh drank a mix of alcoholic beverages with friends at several bars in the Seaport neighborhood of Boston. After his friends went home, Shieh remained at Reelhouse Oyster Bar and struck up a conversation with Dankert and two of her friends, Hayden said. 

Shieh offered them a ride on “his boat,” Hayden said, even though he did not own a boat. Shieh was a member of Freedom Boat Club at the time, and he regularly used a boat that belonged to the club. The organization has strict rules against boating at night, and the vessel did not have sufficient lights to navigate at night, Hayden said. 

Shieh allegedly accessed a marina with a key card that he was not authorized to use, and the four boarded a small boat. Cellphone videos recovered by investigators allegedly show Shieh’s inattentiveness at the helm, where he danced and engaged with the women. About six seconds before the crash, he is captured on video with both hands off the wheel, prosecutors said. 

Surveillance video records from the boat show that it maneuvered into a hairpin turn at about 11:10 p.m. It turned directly toward a pier connected to a runway at Logan Airport and crashed nearly head-on, Hayden said. 

Investigators believe that the boat was traveling at 36 mph before the crash, which Hayden said was dangerously excessive for the area. Shieh’s blood alcohol content was recorded as 0.20 after the crash, over double the legal limit, prosecutors said. 

“What transpired after the crash can only be described as a tremendously heroic rescue operation,” Hayden said. 

The Coast Guard, State Police, and Environmental Police responded to the crash by traversing slippery, seaweed-coated boulders in pitch darkness. They rendered immediate medical care before rushing all four people to awaiting ambulances.

Dankert was pronounced dead at Massachusetts General Hospital. Prosecutors detailed how a canopy on the boat snapped back during the crash, injuring all four of the occupants. Dankert suffered a fracture to the back of her skull. 

“In the end, we are here today and Lizzie Dankert is not here today, because of Lawrence Shieh’s dangerous and ultimately deadly behavior,” Hayden said. 

Dankert was a graduate of Central Catholic High School in Lawrence. She attended Union College in New York, where she majored in English and graduated in 2024. Dankert was remembered as a “tremendous” soccer player who competed at the collegiate level, her family wrote in an obituary. 

“She was brave, bright, disciplined, funny, non judgmental, smart, persistent, and always showed up with her signature sparkle,” they wrote.