1 DEAD, 1 MISSING IN L.I. CRASH 

 

CARL CORRY and HEIDI SINGER

 

Date: Aug 23, 2003

 

(Copyright 2003, The New York Post. All Rights Reserved)

 

A drunken boat captain killed one of his passengers and possibly drowned another when he smashed his craft into a jetty in early- morning fog off eastern Long Island, authorities said.

 

James McCarthy, 44, a restaurateur from Greenport, was grim- faced and silent with his arm in a cast in Southold Town Court yesterday afternoon when he faced charges of boating while drunk and operating an unregistered vehicle.

 

Heather A. Sourenian, 28, a well-known chef on Shelter Island and the North Fork, died in the smash-up.

 

One man was still missing - Timothy Sixtus, 41, of Langhorne, Pa. The Coast Guard said it suspended its search for him at 4:30 p.m. "pending further developments."

 

A quick-thinking good Samaritan saved the lives of McCarthy and two other passengers, Rachel Adler, 28, of Greenport, and Fedele Leone, 32, whose hometown was not revealed.

 

Christian Heil, a Mineola, L.I., teacher, was asleep at a house in Greenport when a howling cat awakened him.

 

Heil went outside to investigate, and heard a woman's screams from the harbor.

 

So he jumped into his boat and rushed to the capsized Grady White craft, powered by two 250-horsepower engines.

 

The Coast Guard - which was called at 3:48 a.m. - arrived at the scene 15 minutes later.

 

But by then, Heil had already pulled the two passengers and McCarthy to safety.

 

"I'm pretty sorry that five people weren't in my boat last night," Heil told The Post. "Only three made it."

 

Rescue divers found Sourenian under the boat. News of her death spread fast on Shelter Island and in Greenport.

 

The quiet chef with the big, beautiful, blue eyes left behind distraught co-workers at the Rams Head Inn and the Chequit, upscale dining spots where she cooked until a few months ago.

 

McCarthy was released on $20,000 bail.

 

"With this heat and mist lately, it's very foggy at night," said May Watson, a shocked neighbor of McCarthy's. The accident "doesn't surprise me. It doesn't take much to miss the entrance into the harbor."