3 Beers Before the Fateful Boat Trip: Grandfather’s statement adds a shocking new layer to the tragedy that claimed two children’s lives!
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Just hours before 9-year-old Mya Bella Golabek and 7-year-old Sigmund “Siggy” Paul Golabek lost their lives on Barnegat Bay, their family had been gathered together at MJ’s Restaurant Bar & Grill in Bayville, New Jersey. The evening of July 19, 2026, felt ordinary—plates of food, conversation, the familiar rhythm of a summer night on the water. Then 64-year-old Stephen Schneider took his two grandchildren aboard his 28- to 30-foot Tidewater Custom 280 center-console boat for the ride home.
What happened next has been widely reported: the boat struck an illuminated channel marker in the dark, both children were thrown into the water despite wearing life jackets, and neither survived. But a statement Schneider later gave to investigators, combined with a blood-alcohol reading of 0.16 percent and a seemingly small decision made after dinner, is now casting the children’s final hours in a completely different light. New details revealed in the case files are drawing fresh attention to this tragic incident and forcing a harder look at how a claim of modest drinking collides with laboratory evidence of significant impairment.
The Dinner That Preceded the Crash
According to the affidavit of probable cause filed in the case and Schneider’s own statements to New Jersey State Police, the family met at MJ’s, a waterfront restaurant on Bay Avenue. Schneider and his wife Laurie arrived on their Tidewater boat. Their daughter Jennifer Golabek, son-in-law Sigmund Golabek, and the two children arrived separately by boat. The group spent roughly two hours together.
Schneider later told detectives that during that time he consumed two Guinness beers and one Miller Lite. When the meal ended, the children expressed a preference: they wanted to go to their grandparents’ nearby waterfront home rather than return with their parents. The adults agreed. Mya and Siggy, already wearing life jackets, climbed into the bow of Schneider’s boat. Laurie Schneider boarded as well. The parents departed on their own vessel. The short trip across Barnegat Bay began.
Schneider told investigators he was traveling at approximately 20 mph. He said both the boat’s radar and an infrared/low-light night navigation camera were activated. He claimed he had traveled the route many times over a lifetime spent on the water. Shortly after 9 p.m., the boat struck Intracoastal Waterway Channel Marker No. 39, a single-stanchion illuminated navigational aid. Schneider said he saw the marker “at the last second.” The impact on the starboard bow ejected both children into the dark water.
The Immediate Aftermath
Schneider and his wife immediately began searching. They found Sigmund first, then Mya. Both children were face-down and unresponsive. CPR was started at once. First responders transported the siblings to Community Medical Center in Toms River with resuscitation efforts continuing. They were pronounced dead at the hospital.
State troopers who responded observed signs of impairment in Schneider. He was taken to the same medical center, where a blood sample was drawn under a search warrant at approximately 12:46 a.m.—roughly three and a half hours after the collision. Toxicology testing later performed by DrugScan Labs returned a blood alcohol concentration of 0.16 percent. Doctors associated with the lab concluded that Schneider was unfit to operate a motor vehicle or vessel and that his alertness, sense of care and caution, perception, judgment, response time, and coordination were “markedly impaired by alcohol.”
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. The children had been wearing life jackets. Those facts only intensify the tragedy: protective equipment was present, navigational technology was reportedly in use, and the operator claimed deep familiarity with the waters. Yet two young lives were still lost.
The Children at the Center of the Story
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, born November 29, 2018, was known as Siggy. 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 shared grief from teammates, neighbors, and friends. A visitation and funeral liturgy were held at Riggs Funeral Home in Forked River on July 24.
The Statement Versus the Science
Schneider’s claim that he had consumed only three beers has become one of the most closely examined details of the case. In impaired-operation investigations—whether involving cars or boats—such statements are common. People often underestimate their intake, especially over the course of a meal and conversation, or fail to account for individual factors such as body weight, food consumption, the timing of drinks, and personal metabolism. What the law and the science focus on is the level of impairment present at the time of operation.
A blood alcohol concentration of 0.16 percent is twice New Jersey’s legal limit of 0.08 percent for operating a vessel. At that level, reaction times slow significantly, peripheral vision narrows, the ability to process multiple stimuli diminishes, and judgment and coordination are substantially compromised. Toxicology experts routinely describe such readings as producing “marked impairment.” The laboratory conclusions in this case aligned with that assessment: Schneider’s alertness, perception, judgment, response time, and coordination were all found to be markedly impaired by alcohol.
The contrast between the grandfather’s statement and the measured blood-alcohol level has added a new layer of scrutiny to the children’s final hours. An ordinary family dinner, a child’s request to ride with grandparents, a short trip on familiar water, and a sudden collision with a channel marker are now viewed through the lens of significant intoxication. The claim of three beers does not disappear; it sits uneasily beside scientific evidence that paints a different picture of Schneider’s condition when he took the helm.
Arrest, Charges, and the Detention Hearing
Nearly a month after the crash, on August 14, 2026, Schneider was arrested and charged with two counts of second-degree reckless vessel homicide (also referred to as death by vessel), operating a vessel under the influence, and reckless operation of a vessel. If convicted on the homicide counts, he faces up to 20 years in state prison. He was held at the Ocean County Jail pending a detention hearing.
That hearing took place on August 19 before Superior Court Judge Wendel E. Daniels. Ocean County Assistant Prosecutor Kate Burke argued against release. “The defendant consumed enough alcohol to reach a BAC of approximately 0.16, and then operated a vessel,” she told the court. “And the result was catastrophic.” Burke emphasized that the blood-alcohol reading demonstrated the degree of impairment under which Schneider chose to operate the boat and that two children had lost their lives as a consequence.
Defense attorney William P. Cunningham presented a different perspective. He noted that Schneider had no meaningful criminal history—only a decades-old controlled-substance matter from his twenties that had been resolved through a pretrial intervention program. More significantly, Cunningham told the judge that the children’s own parents had written letters asking for their grandfather to be released from jail while he awaited trial.
One of those letters came from the children’s father, Sigmund Golabek. In it, he described Schneider as “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 for them. Cunningham argued that if released, Schneider would likely never operate a boat again and would never drink alcohol again. The crash, he said, was not intentional, and questions remained about the precise condition of the channel marker.
Judge Daniels granted conditional release under Level 3 monitoring, which requires regular check-ins with the court. Schneider was temporarily prohibited from operating a boat or motor vehicle while completing a court-ordered assessment. His next court appearance was scheduled for mid-September before Superior Court Judge Guy P. Ryan.
The Heartbreaking Request
The father’s decision to ask for Schneider’s release has become one of the most emotionally complex elements of the case. Jennifer and Sigmund Golabek had just lost their only two children in a single night. The man accused of causing those deaths through impaired operation of a vessel was not a stranger. He was Jennifer’s father, the grandfather the children had chosen to ride with, the person who had shared countless hours with Mya and Siggy on and off the water.
In the raw aftermath of unimaginable loss, the parents chose to keep their family circle intact. They asked the court not to compound their grief by holding Schneider in jail pending trial. The letter from Sigmund Golabek did not minimize the tragedy or dispute the laboratory evidence. It simply insisted that the full measure of a man’s life and relationships be considered alongside the charges he now faces. It was an act of loyalty and love offered in the face of permanent absence.
That choice does not erase the blood-alcohol findings or the two empty places at future family tables. It does not change the fact that a measured BAC of 0.16 percent and a collision with a channel marker ended two young lives. It does, however, reveal the depth of the family’s internal struggle: how to hold both accountability and compassion, justice and remaining connection, grief and the complicated love that endures.
A New Light on the Final Hours
The case files have now placed the children’s last hours under a sharper focus. An ordinary family dinner at MJ’s. A claim of three beers. A child’s request to ride with grandparents. A short trip across Barnegat Bay with navigational aids reportedly activated. A sudden impact with a channel marker. Two children pulled from the water, life jackets still on, unresponsive. A hospital where they could not be saved. A blood test that revealed significant impairment. Charges that carry the possibility of years in prison. And a father’s letter asking a judge to let the children’s grandfather come home.
Every element of that sequence is fixed in the public record and in the private memory of those who loved Mya and Siggy. Schneider faces serious criminal charges and the lifelong knowledge of what happened under his command. Jennifer and Sigmund Golabek face a future without their daughter and son. Laurie Schneider faces the dual weight of having been present for both the crash and the rescue attempts. The extended family and the wider Shore community continue to mourn two bright, energetic siblings who should still be swimming, playing ball, and sharing their private handshake.
The statement about three beers has added a shocking new layer precisely because it forces a confrontation between ordinary human self-perception and the cold measurements of science. People who drink often believe they are fine to operate a vehicle or vessel. Laboratory results frequently tell a different story. In this case, the difference between the claim and the measured BAC has reframed the children’s final hours as a sequence in which significant impairment was present when a familiar route became a fatal trajectory.
The legal process will continue. Prosecutors will present the toxicology evidence and the facts of the collision. The defense will test aspects of the investigation and emphasize Schneider’s character and lack of prior record. Whatever the eventual outcome in court, the human outcome is already complete. Two children who left a restaurant with their family on a summer evening never made it home. The hours that led there—ordinary, affectionate, and then suddenly catastrophic—stand as a permanent reminder of how a claim of “three beers,” a blood-alcohol reading of 0.16, and a single family decision after dinner can cast an entirely different light on a tragedy that claimed two young lives on Barnegat Bay.
