‘They didn’t even stop’: Man describes Mat-Su boating collision that killed his wife

PALMER –Jennifer Horazdovsky died Saturday afternoon after she was run over by a speeding boater as she was being pulled in a flotation tube on Flat Lake, her husband told troopers.

Reagan Martz, 26, of Palmer faces charges of manslaughter, assault and driving under the influence in the death of the 35-year-old woman from Anchorage.

Two other women were seriously injured, one of them critically, in the accident around 3 p.m. on the lake near Big Lake.

Andrew Horazdovsky told Trooper Patrick Simasko he was driving his boat out of a bay and into the lake with his wife and the two others on a flotation tube behind the boat, according to a sworn affidavit filed with the charges against Martz.

Horazdovsky told the trooper he saw another boat approaching, turned to the right and cut power to the engine, the affidavit states.

As he cut power, Horazdovsky said, he saw Martz's boat come "flying around the corner," Simasko wrote. The tube had drifted out and the boat ran it over.

"'They didn't even stop,'" Horazdovsky told the trooper.

The court document didn't make clear what happened in the moments immediately after the collision, or what kind of boat Martz was driving.

Martz fled on a personal watercraft but was stopped on the lake when it broke down, according to the affidavit. Witnesses reported seeing him swimming away from the crash scene, and he took the watercraft from a cabin where he was staying.

Martz smelled of alcohol, slurred his speech and had red, watery eyes, the trooper said.

Taken to a nearby boat ramp, Martz refused to answer questions, Simasko wrote. He also refused to immediately provide a breath sample.

A sample taken nearly three hours after the accident, after he was driven to the troopers post in Meadow Lakes, registered .163, twice the legal limit for driving in Alaska, according to the affidavit.

One of the six people with Martz on his boat told troopers "they were all drinking, partying and having a good time," the document states. They came around a corner, saw Horazdovsky's boat, and the tube went right under their boat as they turned one way and he turned the other.

Another person in the boat tried to administer CPR to Jennifer Horazdovsky immediately after the accident despite deep gashes to her chest and head, according to the affidavit. The man told the trooper he felt a bump during the accident, found himself in the water and tried to pull an injured woman to shore.

A battalion chief from the West Lakes Fire Department, who arrived along with troopers, told the man and another person they needed to move Jennifer Horazdovsky higher on shore, Simasko stated. He then determined she'd suffered too much trauma to continue.

She was pronounced dead at the lake just after 3:30 p.m.

Another woman on the tube was transported by air to a hospital with life-threatening injuries, the affidavit states. She remained in critical condition Monday at Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage, a hospital spokesman said.

The third woman on the tube was taken to a hospital with a broken collarbone.

Martz was jailed at Mat-Su Pretrial Facility as of Monday on $50,000 cash performance bond and supervision by the state's Pretrial Enforcement Division, according to a handwritten record of his arraignment hearing Sunday.

His next hearing was scheduled for June 20 in Palmer Superior Court.

Horazdovsky leaves behind a 2-year-old daughter, according to a GoFundMe account set up for funeral costs.

Her memorial service is scheduled for June 15.