Five college students are facing criminal charges for allegedly covering up the 2019 death of their friend after he was shoved off a party boat in Texas by the girl he was kissing and fell into the vessel’s propeller.
Jack Elliott, 19, died after falling into Lake Travis in Austin while he was out drinking and partying with a group of Texas Christian University friends back in Oct. 2019, the OC Register reported.
His tragic death has sparked a years-long quest for justice by his parents after it was revealed Elliott’s friends allegedly lied to authorities about how the teen went overboard and then ditched their alcohol in the lake before calling 911.
The college students were indicted by a Travis County grand jury late last year after Elliott’s parents filed a wrongful death suit to force them to testify under penalty of perjury about the circumstances surrounding their son’s death.
After initially telling cops and Elliott’s parents that she didn’t know how he fell, Elle Weber — who was driving the boat, said in a sworn statement that she saw their friend, Delaney Brennan, “shove” Elliott overboard.
“Delaney and Jack were at the front of the boat, flirting and kissing. She gave Jack a ‘playful little shove’ and he fell off the boat,” Weber said in the statement.
Another unnamed teen said in an affidavit that Brennan kept saying in the aftermath, “He fell. I didn’t mean to push him.”
Brennan later got Elliott’s initials tattooed on him, saying in her sworn deposition that she “wanted to always have something to remember him by.”
Some of Elliott’s friends invoked their Fifth Amendment right amid the grand jury probe.
His parents filed their lawsuit, which ended up being settled privately after a report from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said Elliott was struck by a propeller multiple times after being pushed over the railing by Brennan.
That report also noted that “false statements were given to the officers” about what unfolded.
Among the false stories, the friends allegedly peddled regarding Elliott’s demise included that he did a backflip into the water and fell over while vomiting.
The five college students are all due to face Travis County Court in the next few weeks in the wake of their indictments, according to online records.
Brennan ended up being indicted on a felony charge of tampering with evidence over the deleting of a cellphone video and Weber on a misdemeanor charge of giving false information to a police officer.
Another teen, Carson Neel, was indicted on a felony charge of tampering with physical evidence after he allegedly tossed the alcohol overboard, while Anthony Salazar was indicted on a misdemeanor charge of perjury.
Joshua Evans was also indicted on a misdemeanor charge of furnishing alcohol to a minor.