UPDATE: Men charged in deadly Lake Tobo crash out on bond, 3rd suspect arrested
Two Bibb County men were arrested Monday and a third turned himself in Wednesday to authorities in connection with a deadly boat crash on Lake Tobesofkee in July, law enforcement officials said.
Game wardens for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources jailed two Macon men — Stephen Bruce Harper, 35, and Nathan C. Hodgson, 36, — on charges of hindering apprehension and making false statements to authorities in what officials described as “a lengthy and thorough investigation.”
Both men were released from the Bibb jail Tuesday on $5,500 bond each.
A third man in the case, Eric D. Head, 57, turned himself in to authorities Wednesday afternoon on charges that included boating under the influence, reckless operation, first degree homicide by vessel and serious injury by vessel.
At a first-appearance hearing before a magistrate prior to being released from jail Tuesday afternoon, Harper was asked by the judge if he understood the charges against him.
“I do,” Harper replied. “I don’t know how they have come about.”
According to copies of arrest warrants obtained Wednesday by The Telegraph, Harper, in the hours immediately following the wreck, allegedly told law enforcement officers that he did not know where Head was. The warrants state that Head, at the time Harper was asked, was inside Harper’s home on Christophers Trace near Moseley Dixon Road on the north side of the lake.
In an interview with investigators three days later, on July 27, the warrants note, Harper repeated his allegedly false claim that he didn’t know where Head was immediately after the crash and “again gave false information on where” Head actually was, hindering Head’s apprehension.
The charges against Hodgson, who also lives near the lake, stem from an alleged false statement he was said to have made to the police.
The warrants state that Hodgson “told law enforcement that Eric Head had walked away from the (crash) scene but Head actually left the scene with Hodgson hindering the apprehension of Head.”
Head, according to a DNR statement, was “believed to currently be out of the state” until Wednesday afternoon when he turned himself in to authorities at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. One official said that Head, an aircraft mechanic, may have been away for work purposes. Head was being held Wednesday evening at the Bibb jail.
The DNR’s statement went on to say that on July 24 Head was driving a 32-foot Fountain vessel, described in past reports as a cigarette boat, when it “collided with a 24-foot pontoon boat occupied by seven people.”
Six passengers on the boat were hurt and a seventh, 22-year-old William Childs of Macon, died.
The wreck happened at about 1:40 a.m.
Passengers on the pontoon boat were said to have been employees of the popular lakeside Fish N Pig restaurant, where Childs was an assistant manager.
The Telegraph reported in late July that occupants of the cigarette boat abandoned their vessel and were later found at a home nearby.
Information from Telegraph archives was used in this report.
This story was originally published November 30, 2021 at 1:58 PM.