Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
on a spring afternoon in 2024, an unimaginable tragedy rocked the town of newport michigan two children were killed and over dozen more injured..
mixed with the community’s grief was outrage towards the women responisble.
appallingly,instead of an explanation, she offered only platitudes and excuses.investigators were left to piece together the whole picture.
and to answer the question,was this a horrific accident or was it murde?
today’s case has made national headlines over the past year. death and injury at a child’s birthday party is almost too nightmarish to comprehend.
making this tragedy even worse is the battle for justice that followed ….
the swan boat club , which calls itself the friendliest club on the water, sits on the michigan shoreline of lake Erie in the town of newport.
the club has been a community hub for many years.
on saturday ,april 20th , 2024,kristen sigler, a longtime baratender at the club rented the pavillion for her son’s third birthday party.
the celebration nthat kristen was a 3 year old’s dream . it was circus themed . there were was a bouncy house ,face painting , and a hotdog stand.
family , friends and , club members were invited along with their children.
beginning at 1:00 p.m. that afternoon , over 😯 people arrived, carrying cards and gifts for the birthday boy .
at just before 3:oo p.m. the partygoers sang happy birthday ,the candles were blown out.
then at approximately 1 minutes past 3, an SUV accelerating at 44 mph barreled into the side of the building,stricking more than a dozen people, sending some into the adjoining room, running over and trapping others.
the vehicle came to a stop only after crashing into the far wall 25 ft into the building.
from the driver’s seat emerged 66 -year old marshella chidester ,a local resident and longtime member of the boat club. she appeared dazed and disoriented.
as the dust cleared , there was confusion as partygoers scarmbled to account for the whereabouts and safety of others.some of those clearly injured were carried from the building .others attended to where they were found.
calls to emerency poured in.marcella was seated in a chair in the center of the chaos,looking on as a group coordinated to lift her vehicle from the ground in order to release those trapped underneath.
as emergency responders arrived on scene, they were first directed to a young boy who had been carried from the crash site. that boy’s aunt and sister were pulled from under the vehicle.
officers were directed to marshella, who appeared uninjured, if a bit confused. marshella told police on scene that she has a history of seizures.when these occur, she said she experiences memory loss . this must have been what happened.
as marshella spoke with police numreous victim was treated, many taken to the hospital.there were total of 15 individuals with serious injuries.
among them was diane medina, a member of the boat club who was attending the party with her three granddaughters. the girls was not hurt in the crash.diane ,however . would undergo multiple surgeries over the following months.
a 14 year old boy was left in critical condition.he would also undergo multiple surgeries.
so would leah stiff ,18 years old at the time, who was a cousin of the birthday boy.
a 12 year old ,jaden ,would spend 2 weeks in the hospital recovering from serious injuries, as would his mother ,mariah dods.
when mariah awoke in hospital her sister was at her bedside, the bearer of more devastating the news. the crash had killed two of mariah’s children jaden’s younger siblings ,8 year old alana and five year old zayn phillips.
the last thing she recalled was being at the birthday party,it was for her godson,her best friends litte boy, she had no recollection of the crash itself .
they had just finished lunch,she recounted placing a cake pop in front of both children after they planned to head to the bouncy house in the backyard of the club.
instead she awoke in the ICU to the heartbreaking news,the loss of two of her children.
66 -year old marshella chidester had lived in newport,just down the gravel road from the boat club from nearly 40 years before she drove into it.
she and her husband hugo had purchased their home in the 1980’s and lived their alone.they never had any children.
marshella had a close connection to the club ,having once served as its commodor, the principal officer who helps to determine the clubs direction,including setting the agenda for the year.
she and hugo had even held their wedding at the venue.
once she was younger,marshella had served in the army. after her discharge, she worked for DTE energy management at the nearby fermy 2 nuclear plant as a strategic buyer.
she retired 9 years prior to the crash.
since then ,it seems that she and hugo lived a quite life in their home near the club.
marshella had not been in great health. she suffered from epileptic typr seizures in her legs that result in paralysis and she was on prescription medications for other age related health issues.
despite her seizures ,she was licensed to drive.over many decades she did so ,she had no once received even a parking ticket.
after the crash ,marshella ultimately brought to the hospital where she was received treatment for her injuries.
she emerged in a wheelchair and with one arm in a cast.no one had informed marshella of the details of the incident
and she appeared outwardly to be utterly unaware of the events at the boat club.
recounting the timeline of her day ,she recalled having lunch with two friends at a local tavern around noon.marshella had driven her SUV from her home directly to the club.
crashing into the pavilion at 3:00 p.m.the party had started 2 hours earlier.her lunch date had ended just after 12,
which left roughly 2 and 1/2 hours unaccounted for.
what had she been doing? investigators pulled video surveillance from the boatclub and surrounding area to piece together a timeline of marshella’s movements.
she may not have been able to recall where she was or what she was doing,but law enforcement was already piecing it together….
at just bfore 3:00 p.m on the day of the crash , a neighbor’s camera captured marshella leaving her house. she appears to stumble slightly while exiting and takes each step down from her porch with caution.
the retiree proceeds down the path towards her car.the timestamp on the doorbell camera across the street was 1 hour behind real time .that camera showed that roughly 2 minutes before she would crash into the boat club,killing two children.
marshella reversed from her driveway, took a wide turn around the detached garage, and drove with speed directly into a neighbor’s parked vehicle.
the force of that crash pushed the neighbor’s car backwards, damagin a fence.
marshella then arrived at the club rapidly.
data from her SUV showed that 5 seconds before impact,she was accelerating.she was moving at 29 mph ,2 seconds later, her speed had increased to 32. 9 mph.
at the time she made contact with the wall of the building,
marshella was driving at just over 44 mph.
her accelerator was at 96 % which indicated her foot must have been pushing the gas pedal all the way to the floor.
marshella told investigators that she parked at the club,went to the party,drop her card for the birthday boy into a card box , and sat at the bar until the party commenced,which she believed was at 3: 00 p.m.
investigators grew frustrated in their attempts to aquire useful insight from marshella.
she was either subconsciously filling gaps in her memory with fals recollections or she was intentionally lying.
eventually , she was told what the consequences were of her actions.
only minutes earlier in the interview room , marshella admitted to having only a single glas of wine with her lunch that day.indeed ,the receipt obtained from the tavern as well as the recollection of the bartender who served her , confirmed this fact.
she had ordered one glass of wine alongside a bowl of chilli.
it was her assertion that alcohol could agggravated her seizures ,which is why she claimed to have primarily moved on to drinking alcohol -free wine.
investigators did not believe that was the hwhole story.
officers at the scene of the crash had attempted to perform two field sobriety tests.
the first following horizontal movement with her eyes failed as she was unable to focus ,the second counting backwards from 100 failed as well when she stumbled after number 90 and began to confuse the order.
marshella’s insistence that she had consumed only a single glass of wine prior to the crash was contradicted by her own statements.
at the scene , she admitted to officers that she had been drinking and that she did not feel fit to drive.
one hour following this interview on scene, a blood sample was taken, an officer from the monroe county sheriff office was tasked with driving the sample directly to the michigan state crime lab and handing it over to forensic experts there .which the officer did.
the result of the lab test showed a blood alcohol level of 0.18.over double the legal limit.if the test was accurate ,there was no way that marshella had consumed only a single glass of wine.to register a level that high an hour after the crash, she would have had to consume closer to 10 glasses.
the test further showed the presence of the seizure and pain medication gabapentin, a central nervous system depressant.
mixing alcohol and and this medication could exacerbate the effects of both.
Marshella Chidester was arrested and charged with multiple counts .
including second degree murder for the death of alana and zayn phillips.
she was also charged with two counts of operating while intoxicated causing death and five counts of operating while intoxicated causing serious injury.
her defens team asserted that the blood alcohol test result was inaccurate,that there were mistakes made in the blood draw at the hospital, that the sample was improperly transported to the lab.
and there were further errors in the testing. the crash was an accident , they said.
a tragic one that occured as a result of a seizure.
she pleaded not guilty.to the outrage of the community and her many victims marshella was released on bond,awaiting trial.
these babies haven’t even had a burial , a service yet , and this lady’s drinking coffee at home with her family with her loved ones,personally will never forget the feeling ,the cries from a grown man when he finds out his kids have been taken from”
michael hatfield / uncle to alanah and zayn
attempts by the defense to have the BAC results thrown out before the trial failed.
the strategy in front of the jury ,however,was still to introduce evidence that these results were in fact tainted and unreliable.
in addition to questions of marchella’s BAC, defense bill colovos further asserted that due to no fault of her own, there were questions surrounding marshella’s prescribed medication.
colovos presented these speculation to the media after his client’s family doctor ho oversaw her treatment and wrote her prescriptions, was arrested and charged with multiple felonies.
he faced 35 charges related to what was described as a criminal enterprise in which he prescribed heavy painkillers to patients who did not need them.
her attorney has been saying all along, she was told by a doctor she was allowed to drive when she says she had a seizure like event that caused the crash.
the trial commenced in march 2025.
prosecutors began presenting their case by calling victims to tell the jury about their experience on the day of the crash.
heartbreaking testimony was offered by mariah dods.she had recovered from her life- threatening injuries while grieving the loss of two of her children.maria told jurors about awaking in the hospital to hear the news.
defense attorney colovos stood to cross-examine mariah only to tear up, speak of the lost of his own son and offer his condolences.
colovos called kelly thornton who waited on marshella at verna’s the local tavern several hours before the crash.
thorton told jurors that marshella had one glass of wine , a water , and a cup of white chicken chili she said the 66 year old did not appear intoxicated when she served her,but she did not see her leave.
then they called an expert witness upon whose testimony their defense relied.forensic toxicologist okori okarocha.
okarocha testified that marshella’s blood sample showed presence of acetone,the chemical compound found in nail polish remover .
it does not occur naturally in the body , but would appear in the sample due to fernentation. according to okarocha, that fernmentation could occur if the sample was not properly preserved.
if it was not placed in a fridge or freezer immediately, for example, this fernmentation would spoil the result of an alcohol test. returning a higher result than was stricktly accurate.
the prosecution countered the assertion that the BAC was inaccurate with multiple witnesses from the michigan state police’s lab.
they also called samantha beichchum ,who supervises the toxicology lab,it was her job to check the sample for any irregularities, and she said ,she did not find any.
there was one more glaring issue with the defense’s theory…they had no direct evidence that marshella had actually experienced a seizure at the time of the crash.
there was a wealth of evidence , however ,that she had been drinking wine all day.
the prosecution called a local store clerk to the stand who testified to selling to marshella one full- size bottle of red wine and four smaller bottles of pogrigio at 9:01 a.m. just 1 minute after the store opened on th morning of the crash.
when police searched the Chidester house.they found a garbage bin full of corresponding empty bottles ,they only found empty bottles of wine in the house.
they also found a camera.
internal footage from the chidester home showed marshella returning from the store and carrying in her hand what appeared to be one of the smaller 187 ml bottles of wine at 9: 24. a.m.
the kitchen camera hasa timestamp 1 hour earlier than real time.
at 10 :30 a. m. she carried an empty bottle back into the kitchen. a small bottle is visible again in her hand at 10 :45.
by 12:35, she is captured returning from her lunch at verna’s ,it was undisputed that she had consumed another glas of wine while she was there.
at 2:10 that afternoon,the camera now capture her carrying a large glass of red
roughly 20 minutes later she wandered in to refill that glas.
the bottle. presumably the one purchased that morning,is visible on the edge of the screen sitting on on the countertop .
that las glass was refilled less than a half an hour before she chose to get behind the qheel of her SUV,back into her neighbor’s vehicle, and then drive 44 mph into a child’s birhday party.
at the moment she crashed into that truck , she had to know things were not right. …but she continued on,she continued on at full speed and drove her car into a three year old’s birthday party into a building. a route that she knew very ,very well.
ladies and getnlemen , this is not a typical drunk driving crash.not at all.
she didn’t cross a center line and strike oncoming traffic.she didn’t misjudge a red light and rear in someone. at almost 45 m an hour. she drove through the wall of a building that she had been to countless times.
that’s what makes this worse than OWI causing death alone.she drove her car into an occupied building knowing she was unfit to operate a vehicle.
and if she didn’t know she was unfit to drive when she got behind the wheel, she knew it after she hit her neigbhor’s truck.
ken laurain/prosecutor.
the jury returned with their verdict after less than 2 hours.
marshella was found guilty on all counts.
brian phillips , the father of alanah and zayn, expressed his relief at the verdict ,though admitted that nothing could give him peace after the loss of his children.
one month later , marshella was ro receive her sentence from judge daniel white.
in an unusual move, during the period of time between the verdict and the sentencing hearing marshella fired her attorney.
according to bill kolovos,he planned to handle the appeal and was suprised to learn upon arriving at the county jail to see his client that he had been dismissed.
at the hearing ,the new defense council made it clear that he did not support the methods employed by his predecessor.
victims from the crash offered impact statements to the court.
in his sentencing statements to the court , judge white cconsidered that throughout the case marshella had continued to assert that she had only consumed a single glass of wine that day.
she refused to be placed in treatment for alcohol addiction as she did not believe she was an alcoholic, a fact disputed by the community that knew her for years….
the judge speculated that her further insistence that she could not recall the events of the day may be a way to cope with the horrific nature of her actions.
because this memory loss had never been fully explained.
marshella Chidester was sentenced to 25 to 50 years in prison at the age of 67 and with her existing health issues, it is tantamount to a life sentence.
marshella’s family doctor,dr Gar, did not testify at her trial kolovos had hoped that the doctor would admit to gross negligence on the stand for not suspending marshella’s license after her last seizure- like episode.
it seems the doctor did not whish to incriminate himself while he stood accused of 35 felonies.
kolovos , althoug no longer handling her apeal, has stated that he firmly believes her conviction will be overturned and that she will receive a new trial.
and that was the tragic case of alanah and zayn phillips and the many other victims of the swan boat club crash.
a group of those impacted filed a lawsuit against marshella, her insurance company,and the boat club seeking damages in part to assist with their medical bills.
a handful of GoFoundMe pages have also been set up for this purpose.