Passenger charged in December crash that killed 4 Maine Maritime students

A group of Maine Maritime Academy students gathers around a memorial set up on the Castine campus on Dec. 11, 2022, after four students died in a fiery crash just off campus. Ethan Genter/The Bangor Daily News via Associated Press file

A passenger who survived a crash that killed four Maine Maritime Academy students last year has been indicted on 13 charges, including manslaughter, according to News Center Maine (WCSH/WLBZ).

The station reported that a Hancock County grand jury indicted Noelle Tavares, 21, of North Falmouth, Massachusetts, on Friday on charges that include manslaughter, operating under the influence, and driving to endanger.

Robert Granger, the district attorney for Washington and Hancock counties, told the TV station that Tavares “aided in the unlawful conduct which directly contributed to the tragic crash.”

The crash happened on Route 166 in Castine in the predawn hours of Dec. 10. Officials have said Joshua Goncalves-Radding of North Babylon, New York, was driving a 2013 Range Rover when the vehicle left the road, crashed into a tree and erupted into flames.

Four of the seven people in the vehicle were killed: Brian Kenealy, 20, of York; Chase Fossett, 21, of Gardiner; Luke Simpson, 22, of Rockport, Massachusetts; and Riley Ignacio-Cameron, 20, of Aquinnah, Massachusetts.

Three people survived and were treated at hospitals for non-life-threatening injuries: Goncalves-Radding; Tavares; and Dominick Gecoya, of Middleton, Massachusetts. All seven were Maine Maritime Academy students.

Goncalves-Radding is also facing 17 charges, including manslaughter and operating under the influence; he pleaded not guilty to all charges in May.

Gecoya, the other surviving passenger, was also indicted on similar counts earlier this year, but News Center Maine reported that those charges have been dropped because Granger, the DA, said: “the known facts that developed during the ongoing investigation no longer supported felony counts against him as owner of the vehicle.”

Granger could not be reached Saturday afternoon.

At a vigil a few days after the crash, college President Jerry S. Paul said the entire community felt the losses.

“Mourn these young men in their memory. … They were lost way too soon and before their watch was over. We will carry on for them and at the appropriate time ring eight bells in their honor,” he said, referring to the sea tradition honoring someone who has died.

Maine Maritime Academy, which has an enrollment of about 1,000, is one of a handful of maritime colleges in the U.S. where students train as crew members or engineers for careers in the maritime industry.