They could have gone home with their parents: 1 small family decision ended with 2 siblings never making it home
They could have gone home with their parents: 1 small family decision ended with 2 siblings never making it home.
Mya, 9, and Sigmund, 7, had just spent time with their family at MJ’s Restaurant Bar & Grill. When the night was over, the children chose to ride back with their grandparents aboard Stephen Schneider’s 30-foot boat.
It was supposed to be an ordinary trip across Barnegat Bay.
Instead, the boat slammed into a channel marker in the darkness, sending both children into the water. They were wearing life jackets, but neither survived.
Now prosecutors say their 64-year-old grandfather was heavily impaired when he was behind the wheel.
That final choice would leave a family facing a loss no parent could have imagined.
************
On the evening of July 19, 2026, two young siblings stood at a quiet fork in the road that no one recognized as dangerous. Mya Bella Golabek, 9, and her brother Sigmund “Siggy” Paul Golabek, 7, had just finished dinner with their family at MJ’s Restaurant Bar & Grill, a waterfront spot in Bayville, New Jersey. The night was warm, the bay darkening around them. When it was time to leave, the children made a choice that felt ordinary, even sweet: they wanted to ride back with their grandparents instead of their parents.
That single decision—small, spontaneous, rooted in affection—sent them onto Stephen Schneider’s 28- to 30-foot Tidewater Custom 280 center-console boat. Their parents, Jennifer and Sigmund Golabek, returned separately on their own vessel. The grandparents’ home was nearby. The trip across Barnegat Bay should have been short and uneventful. Instead, shortly after 9 p.m., the boat struck an illuminated Intracoastal Waterway channel marker. Both children, seated in the front and wearing life jackets, were thrown into the dark water. Neither survived.
Prosecutors later revealed that their 64-year-old grandfather was heavily impaired when he was at the helm. Schneider told investigators he had drunk only three beers—two Guinnesses and one Miller Lite—over about two hours at the restaurant. A blood test drawn roughly three and a half hours after the crash measured his blood alcohol concentration at 0.16 percent, twice New Jersey’s legal limit of 0.08 percent. Toxicology experts concluded his alertness, judgment, perception, response time, and coordination were “markedly impaired by alcohol.”
What began as a routine summer evening of family time on the Jersey Shore ended in a loss so complete that it has left a family grappling with grief, loyalty, and the irreversible weight of a single choice.
An Ordinary Night on the Bay
The Golabeks and Schneiders were the kind of family who spent time together on the water. Schneider, a retired worker who lived in the Bayville section of Berkeley Township with his wife Laurie, owned a waterfront property and a capable center-console boat well-suited to Barnegat Bay. He had spent a lifetime on boats and knew the local waters well. That Sunday evening, the two couples and the two children met at MJ’s for dinner. The parents arrived by boat with Mya and Siggy. The grandparents arrived on the Tidewater.
According to the affidavit of probable cause and Schneider’s statements to New Jersey State Police, the meal lasted roughly two hours. When it ended, the children expressed a preference: they wanted to go to their grandparents’ house rather than return with their parents. The adults agreed. The kids, already wearing life jackets, climbed into the bow of Schneider’s boat. Laurie Schneider was also on board. The parents departed on their own vessel. The short ride home began.
Schneider later told detectives he was traveling at about 20 mph. He said both the boat’s radar and an infrared/low-light night navigation camera were turned on. He claimed he saw Intracoastal Waterway Channel Marker No. 39—a single-stanchion illuminated navigational aid—“at the last second.” The starboard bow struck the marker. The force ejected both children into the water.
Schneider and his wife immediately began searching. They found Sigmund first, then Mya. Both were face-down and unresponsive. CPR was started at once. The children were taken to Community Medical Center in Toms River with resuscitation efforts continuing. They were pronounced dead there.
The channel marker’s lights were reported to have been functioning properly, though defense attorneys have noted that investigators continued examining the aid’s condition. Schneider told police he had traveled the route many times. The combination of darkness, speed, and the sudden appearance of a fixed object proved catastrophic.
The Children Who Never Made It Home
Mya Bella Golabek was born on April 6, 2017. Family and friends remembered her as a sweet, fun-loving girl with a competitive spirit that shone in softball and basketball. She loved swimming, beach days, crabbing, drawing, and crafts. Her smile and kind heart, relatives said, made people around her feel loved.
Sigmund Paul Golabek, known as Siggy, was born on November 29, 2018. He was described as sweet, sometimes shy, but adventurous, with a vivid imagination. He loved basketball, baseball, swimming, and the special handshake he shared only with his sister. Their joint obituaries captured the essence of their relationship: “A sibling bond is a love that lasts forever. Mya and Siggy were not only brother and sister, but best friends who shared laughter, adventures, and countless memories. Now they continue their journey together, hand in hand, carrying their love beyond this world and leaving behind a beautiful reminder of the unbreakable bond they shared.”
They were the only two children of Jennifer and Sigmund Golabek of Lacey Township. Their deaths left their parents without the two people who had defined their family. Community support poured in after the crash—meals, donations to Popcorn Park Zoo in Siggy’s memory and to the Lacey Storm Softball 10U team in Mya’s, and an outpouring of grief from teammates, neighbors, and friends. A visitation and funeral liturgy were held at Riggs Funeral Home in Forked River on July 24.
The Grandfather’s Claim and the Laboratory Results
Schneider was arrested on August 14, 2026, nearly a month after the crash, once toxicology results were completed. He faced two counts of second-degree reckless vessel homicide (death by vessel), operating a vessel under the influence, and reckless operation of a vessel. Conviction on the homicide counts carries a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
In statements to police, Schneider maintained he had consumed only three beers during the roughly two-hour dinner. The blood draw, taken under a search warrant after troopers observed signs of impairment, told a different story. At 0.16 percent, the reading indicated significant intoxication. Experts from DrugScan Labs concluded he was unfit to operate a vessel and that multiple cognitive and physical functions critical to safe boat handling were markedly impaired.
v
The discrepancy between the claim of three beers and the measured blood alcohol level is common in impaired-driving cases, whether on roads or water. Factors such as body weight, food consumption, the timing of drinks, individual metabolism, and the tendency of people to underreport alcohol intake can all play a role. What matters legally and practically is the impairment present at the time of operation. At twice the legal limit, reaction times slow, peripheral vision narrows, judgment falters, and the ability to process multiple cues—lights, markers, depth, other vessels—diminishes sharply.
Schneider told investigators he had navigational aids activated and knew the waters. Those facts make the collision more, not less, difficult to explain without reference to impairment. Experienced boaters are not immune to the effects of alcohol; in some ways, familiarity can create a false sense of security that masks reduced capability.
A Family’s Unimaginable Position
In the weeks after the children’s deaths, the family faced a second, almost impossible decision. When Schneider appeared for a detention hearing on August 19, 2026, before Superior Court Judge Wendel E. Daniels, the children’s parents submitted letters asking that their grandfather be released from jail pending trial.
Ocean County Assistant Prosecutor Kate Burke argued against release. She told the court that Schneider had consumed enough alcohol to reach a BAC of approximately 0.16 and then operated a vessel, with catastrophic results. The reading, she said, demonstrated the degree of impairment under which he chose to operate the boat, and two children lost their lives as a consequence.
Defense attorney William P. Cunningham emphasized Schneider’s lack of significant criminal history—only a decades-old controlled-substance matter resolved through pretrial intervention—and the family’s own requests. Cunningham said that if released, Schneider would likely never operate a boat again and would never drink alcohol again. The children’s father, Sigmund Golabek, wrote that Schneider was “a wonderful father-in-law, loving grandfather and a man with a generous heart.” He expressed gratitude for the way Schneider had loved the children, the role he had played in their lives, and the example he had set.
Judge Daniels granted conditional release under Level 3 monitoring, requiring regular court check-ins. Schneider was prohibited from operating a boat or motor vehicle while completing a court-ordered assessment. His next appearance was scheduled for mid-September.
The parents’ decision to support Schneider’s release does not erase the evidence or the loss. It reflects a private, agonizing calculation: that the man who helped raise their children’s mother, who shared countless hours with Mya and Siggy, and who now carries the knowledge of what happened should not face pretrial incarceration on top of that burden. It is a choice few outsiders can fully understand. The same family that lost its two children includes the man accused of causing those deaths through impaired operation of a vessel.
The Weight of One Decision
The central, haunting fact of this case is how close the children came to a different outcome. They could have climbed into their parents’ boat. They could have gone home the way they arrived. The preference to ride with grandparents was natural, affectionate, and, in any other context, harmless. On this night it placed them in the path of a collision that claimed both their lives.
Life jackets were worn. Navigational equipment was reportedly activated. The operator claimed familiarity with the route. The marker was illuminated. Yet the combination of darkness, moderate speed, and significant alcohol impairment produced a result that no amount of safety equipment could reverse once the impact occurred. Young passengers seated forward are particularly vulnerable to being ejected. Immersion in dark water, even with flotation, can quickly become unsurvivable if the wearer is unconscious or unable to keep an airway clear.
Barnegat Bay and Ocean County waters have seen multiple serious incidents this summer, underscoring the risks of nighttime recreational boating. Channel markers exist precisely to prevent vessels from striking fixed objects. When an experienced operator still hits one, questions inevitably turn to human factors—fatigue, distraction, and, in this case, alcohol.
Schneider’s case will test those questions in court. Prosecutors must prove that he operated the vessel recklessly and that the recklessness caused the deaths. The blood-alcohol evidence and toxicology conclusions form a central part of that case. The defense may challenge aspects of the blood draw timing, the marker’s condition, or the precise contribution of alcohol versus other factors. Whatever the legal outcome, the human outcome is already fixed: two children who left a restaurant with their family never made it home.
The final choice that night was small. It was the kind of everyday decision parents and grandparents make without a second thought—letting children ride with the adults they love, trusting that the short trip across familiar water will end safely. On July 19, 2026, that trust met the hard limits of impaired judgment and the unforgiving physics of a boat striking a channel marker in the dark. Mya and Sigmund Golabek, best friends and siblings, were thrown into Barnegat Bay wearing the life jackets meant to protect them. They did not survive. Their parents, who could have taken them home themselves, are left with a grief no parent could have imagined and a family decision that will echo for the rest of their lives.
