Lake Murray boat crash victims were dedicated outdoorsmen

Danny Phillips, always quick to take anyone who would go fishing with him on Lake Murray, was trying once again Friday night on what would prove to be his final outing.

“Whoever was interested, he would take them out in that boat,” Mark Phillips said Monday of his 37-year-old son. “He took all his cousins out fishing.”

Danny Phillips recently started fishing for stripers, a type of bass that are active night feeders, said his 62-year-old father, who said he doesn’t enjoy being on the water as much as his son did.

Danny Phillips died Friday while fishing with two friends on Lake Murray near Dreher Island, a state park. His longtime friend and coworker, Christopher Shawn Lanier, 28, also was killed in the collision with a 32-foot power boat, authorities have said. The men grew up together, Mark Phillips said.

“From what the survivor says, they had decided to go to one more place before they turned it in,” Phillips said, “and they were on their way over there to the other spot.”

Bruce Dyer was driving the Intrepid power boat that ran over Danny Phillips’ 16-foot bass boat, according to Capt. Robert McCullough of the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, which is investigating the crash that happened just after 11 p.m.

“Since that horrible accident, my wife and our friends and I have been assisting law enforcement,” Dyer said in a statment to WIS-TV. “They've asked us to let their investigation go ahead without commenting, and our hearts and prayers are with everyone involved.”

Phillips died of blunt-force trauma from the collision, Lexington County Coroner Margaret Fisher said. Lanier’s body was pulled from the water by divers 18 hours later. An autopsy Monday determined Lanier died of blunt-force trauma to the head, Fisher said. She wasn’t sure Monday which part of the boat caused the fatal injury.

McCullough wouldn’t release additional details about the crash Monday, citing the ongoing investigation.

Investigators are trying to determine if alcohol was a factor in the crash, a prospect McCullough said they have not dismissed. “I will not say that alcohol is not a factor; I will not say that it won’t be a factor,” he said. “I can’t rule it out right now.”

‘Not a PETA-type of person’

Both men worked at All Things Wild, a Columbia wildlife and pest control business that Danny Phillips started in 2003, “with two rat traps and $300,” according to his obituary. His fascination with wildlife began at a young age and grew “to the degree that sometimes he didn’t respect them enough and got bit,” his dad said with a chuckle.

“He was not a PETA-type of person,” Mark Phillips said, referring to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. “He knew the place of wildlife in our society. He was a responsible sportsman about that sort of stuff and very much cared for God’s creations.”

Phillips recalled that his son’s first time hunting as a child did not go well. Shooting at a deer for the first time startled him. “The first deer he shot at, he emptied a .30-30 at the deer and missed everything,” Phillips said.

Danny Phillips’ love of wildlife led him to Clemson University, where he graduated in 2002 with a degree in wildlife biology. He opened his business a year later.

Mark Phillips said he was proudest of his son’s spiritual journey, especially after the deaths of his grandfathers in 2007 and 2013.

“When my dad died, he got a hold of my dad’s Bible and started reading it,” he said. “That’s when he really changed. He started realizing his life was not his own but belonged to God. He started realizing he needed to make some changes.”

Lexington resident Ronnie Alexander knew Danny Phillips since they played soccer together at Spring Valley High School, where Phillips was known for being a jokester.

“You want to have fun and not take it 100 percent serious,” said Alexander, 39. “If (Danny) wasn’t out there, it just wasn’t the same.”

Alexander knew his friend and teammate was an avid outdoorsman, and said he often had people over to cook what he caught. Once he even tricked Alexander into trying squirrel.

“Animals you normally wouldn’t think of eating,” he said, laughing. “He always sent you home with bags of fish, squirrel, frog legs.”

‘The life of the party’

Lanier graduated from the University of South Carolina in 2011 with a degree in biology, a USC spokesman said. Before that, he played baseball in high school and for USC-Sumter, according to his obituary, part of which was written by his sister, Blythe Lanier.

“I am finding some sort of peace in knowing God will give you all the deer, turkeys and fish in his heaven,” she wrote, adding that in looking at people’s social media posts about her brother, it was difficult to find a picture of her brother not smiling.

“He simply was the life of the party,” she wrote. “The party around here just won’t ever be the same without him.”

The last time multiple people died at the same time on Lake Murray was in May 2010, when four people were killed in two separate boating accidents.

Steven Kranendonk of Irmo was released from prison in January after his conviction in Richland County for reckless homicide in a crash that killed two women in one of those collisions, state probation officials said Monday. Kranendonk served nearly half of a 10-year sentence, with one day forgiven for each day served without disciplinary problem, officials said.

Two of his requests for parole were denied before his release three months ago, officials said.

In the other crash, Steven Miller was sentenced to 18 months probation and assigned 120 hours of community service after pleading guilty to breach of the peace in a September 2014 plea settlement.

Two friends riding on the boat Miller drove died in the crash. Relatives of both victims urged leniency, calling it a tragedy among friends.

This story was originally published April 24, 2017 at 11:06 AM with the headline "Lake Murray boat crash victims were dedicated outdoorsmen."