3 men charged over 2018 fatal Missouri tourist boat accident

A local prosecutor has filed a total of 63 felony criminal charges against three employees over a July 2018 tourist boat accident on a Missouri lake that killed 17 people.

The charges were filed Friday in Stone County against Ride the Ducks Branson captain Kenneth Scott McKee, general manager Charles Baltzell and manager on duty Curtis Lanham.

All three face 17 felony counts of first-degree involuntary manslaughter, and McKee faces 12 additional charges. The captain is accused of not exercising his duties by taking the boat out on Table Rock Lake during a thunderstorm.

The others are accused of not communicating weather conditions or ceasing operations. The dead included nine members of one family from Indianapolis. Other victims were from Missouri, Illinois and Arkansas.