All criminal charges have been dropped against three duck boat employees who took a boat on the lake ahead of a storm in Branson in 2018 that produced up to 73 miles per hour winds, sinking the sightseeing vessel and resulting in the deaths of 17 people.
Judge Alan Mark Blankenship in a decision filed Tuesday afternoon determined there was not sufficient evidence to uphold the charges. The case has been dismissed without prejudice. On July 19, 2018, 31 people, including children, and Robert “Bob” Williams, the duck boat driver, boarded Stretch Duck No. 7 on Table Rock Lake under a clear sky.
Midway through the water tour, as a severe storm system approached, the boat began battling waves nearly four feet tall. The duck boat went under, taking with it five children and nine members of the same family from Indianapolis, who were vacationing in a tragedy that drew national attention and shuttered the amphibious tourist attraction for now.
Boat captain Kenneth “Scott” McKee, 54; Curtis P. Lanham, 39, the general manager at Ride the Ducks in Branson; and Charles V. Baltzell, 79, the operations supervisor who was acting as a manager on duty that night, were criminally charged in the sinking last July. The defendants each faced 17 counts of first-degree involuntary manslaughter, a felony.
McKee, who was steering the boat when it sank, additionally faced 12 counts of first-degree endangering the welfare of a child, also felonies. Twelve children under the age of 17 were on the duck boat when it capsized.
Attorneys for the defendants have long urged Blankenship to drop all charges against their clients, blaming instead uncertain weather radars and an unusual weather event.