{"id":20010,"date":"2026-07-28T16:36:41","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T11:36:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=20010"},"modified":"2026-07-28T16:36:41","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T11:36:41","slug":"drunk-boater-decapitates-woman-after-crashing-into-her-at-80-miles-per-hour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=20010","title":{"rendered":"Drunk boater decapitates woman after crashing into her at 80 miles per hour"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F2%2F2026%2F07%2F135746044.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>A drunk Illinois boater with a history of driving under the influence decapitated a woman after he crashed into her boat while going 80 miles per hour over the weekend, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n<p>Richard Stevenson, 45, allegedly smashed his 31-foot pontoon into the back of another smaller boat in a no-wake zone at high speeds, killing a 48-year-old woman and injuring her husband after a day of heavy drinking on the Fox River in Illinois Saturday, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mchenrycountyil.gov\/Home\/Components\/News\/News\/18715\/11527\">according to the McHenry County State Attorney\u2019s Office<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The unidentified woman was decapitated and was declared dead at the scene, prosecutors revealed at Stevenson\u2019s hearing on Monday, where a judge ordered he remain in custody ahead of his trial, <a href=\"https:\/\/abc7chicago.com\/post\/fox-river-death-investigation-man-charged-boat-crash-killed-1-injured-2-report\/19584132\/\">ABC7 Chicago reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis man was a ticking time-bomb and that bomb went off this past Saturday on the Fox River,\u201d Deputy Chief Brian Miller argued at Stevenson\u2019s detention hearing.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Richard Stevenson, 45, was ordered to remain in jail during his legal proceedings on Monday. <span class=\"credit\">McHenry County Government Center<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Stevenson was found standing near the pontoon boat along the treeline when police arrived. He was taken to Northwestern Hospital in McHenry, where tests revealed a blood alcohol concentration of approximately .200 \u2014 two and a half times the legal driving limit.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Two other passengers of the pontoon boat had left by the time cops showed up.<\/p>\n<p>Multiple witnesses told investigators that Stevenson had been drinking throughout the day, and surveillance video shows him zipping the watercraft at extremely high rates of speed on both the Fox River and adjoining Chain O\u2019Lakes leading up to the crash, which occurred around 2:30 p.m. Saturday in McHenry.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Surveillance camera showed Stevenson speeding on the river before the crash.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_6-0\">Prosecutors said he was going as fast as 80 miles per hour when he plowed over the 20-foot Crownline, prosecutors said.<a href=\"https:\/\/people-app.onelink.me\/HNIa\/kz7l4cuf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Stevenson was arrested and charged with reckless homicide and two counts of aggravated driving under the influence.<\/p>\n<p>Stevenson had been charged with drunk driving on three previous occasions, as well as reckless driving three times, and has four misdemeanor speeding offenses, according to the prosecutor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>A 48-year-old woman was decapitated in the drunk driving crash.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Stevenson is due to appear in court next on Aug. 5.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A drunk Illinois boater with a history of driving under the influence decapitated a woman after he crashed into her boat while going 80 miles per hour over the weekend, prosecutors said. Richard Stevenson, 45, allegedly smashed his 31-foot pontoon into the back of another smaller boat in a no-wake zone at high speeds, killing&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20011,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/07\/135746044.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}