It has been more than a year since 10-year-old Brooklyn Carroll of Apex was killed and another woman was seriously injured in Harris Lake in what prosecutors say was the fault of a drunk boater.
Quentin Kight, who investigators say was operating the boat, and the boat's owner, Annemarie Flanigan, were indicted in Chatham County on second-degree murder charges.
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As the criminal case moves forward, Carroll's parents filed a wrongful death civil lawsuit in Wake County Superior Court against Kight, Flannagan and other passengers on the boat.
Judge Bryan Collins heard from the multiple attorneys in the case and set the civil trial to begin in August 2027.
Authorities told WRAL News Carroll and Stehle were swimming close to a boat when Kight drove Flanigan's boat into them. Authorities found 39 empty beer cans in the boat.
Kight, 40, faces a felony charge for operating a motor vessel "while under the influence of an impairing substance" and unintentionally causing the death of another person, according to an arrest warrant.
Flanigan is charged with felony death by impaired boating, serious injury via impaired boating and aiding and abetting boating while impaired.
WRAL has reported that Flanigan and Kight were in a romantic relationship.
Jennifer Stehle was also hurt and had to have her leg amputated.