Howell Man Indicted In Fatal 2020 DWI ATV Crash At Ocean County Lake

TOMS RIVER, NJ — A Howell Township man has been indicted on vehicular homicide in the December 2020 crash of an ATV in a lake at a former mining site that killed another Howell man, the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office said Thursday.

Stephen McGuire, 44, was indicted Thursday in the death of James Grover, 62, on charges of vehicular homicide and strict liability vehicular homicide, along with three counts of endangering the welfare of a child in the Dec. 12, 2020, crash, Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said.

Authorities say McGuire had a blood-alcohol concentration of .127 percent when after he crashed an ATV into a lake at the center of the Heritage Minerals site, with Grover and three kids as his passengers. Grover, who also was from Howell, and the ATV did not resurface, authorities said.

The other passengers and members of the group tried to find Grover but were unsuccessful. Manchester Township Police and members of the Manchester, Ridgeway, and Whiting Volunteer fire companies conducted an underwater dive search-and-rescue operation and found the ATV overturned in about 25 feet of water, with Grover still attached to it by his safety harness, authorities said.

Grover was removed from the safety harness and life-saving measures were performed by Manchester Township emergency medical technicians and Robert Wood Johnson paramedics, but Grover succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said.

McGuire was taken to Community Medical Center in Toms River and his blood drawn after authorities obtained a search warrant, the prosecutor's office said.

The results of the blood test showed McGuire had a blood alcohol concentration of .127 percent, more than 50 percent above the legal limit, officials said. McGuire was arrested Jan. 5, 2021, at his Howell home, taken to the Ocean County Jail, and later released under New Jersey's bail reform rules, they said.

Heritage Minerals is a 7,000-acre private property owned by the Hovnanian Corporation. It originally was operated by the American Smelting and Refining Company, also known as ASARCO, as a mineral mining site. It later was owned and operated by Heritage Minerals until the mining operations stopped in the early 1980s.

The property has posted "No Trespassing" signs but remains popular with ATV riders and has been a magnet for swimmers, even as it has been the site of several fatalities.

Former mining pits litter the property and appear to be lakes, but they are actually filled with water from groundwater aquifers, water that is much colder than typical lakes that are stream-fed. Because they were mining pits, the shorelines and lake bottoms are not stable, and there have been multiple incidents.

"Under no circumstance should anyone walk or drive on this exposed shelf or approach or enter these waters," police have said on multiple occasions.

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