Mother of eastern Ontario boat crash victim remembers daughter

Nearly 200 days ago, Alison Côté lost her 22-year-old daughter, Juliette, in a tragic boat crash.

"We've been doing okay," Côté said. "Just taking it one day at a time. Good days and bad days."

It happened on May 18 around 9:30 p.m. in the Buck Bay area of Bobs Lake, roughly 140 kilometres southwest of Ottawa.

Riley Orr, 23, and Kaila Bearman, 21, were also killed in the crash with Juliette, while they were enjoying the long weekend at a cottage with a group of friends. Five others were also injured that night.

Juliette had taken the weekend off from work so she could go, something her mother says she didn't do often.

"I was kind of excited for her that she was going to be able to finally go and hang with her friends and just have a fun time."

That excitement quickly turned to horror, as that would be their final conversation.

"I had checked in with Juliette earlier that day, and she said she was having a great time," Côté said.

Juliette Côté and her boyfriend Ben Viau. (Supplied by Alison Côté)

44-year-old facing a dozen charges

Last week, Ontario Provincial Police announced 44-year-old Matthew Splinter from South Frontenac had been charged with a dozen charges, including three counts each of impaired operation causing death and three counts of dangerous operation of a conveyance causing death.

From the night it happened, to the date charges were laid, about five-and-a-half months had passed.

Sitting down with CTV News in the dining room of her home just north of Kingston, Ont., Côté admitted the process was frustrating at times, knowing the accused was living life normally before he was arrested.

Despite that, she said the family understands why it took so long.

"Shortly after the accident, we met with two of the police officers handling the investigation and they explained the entire process to us," she said.

"We just wanted to make sure that they were doing their due diligence."

Côté adds that there is a bit of relief with charges finally being laid, but it brings the sadness of losing their daughter back to the surface and doesn't change what happened.

Remembering the night

Côté and her husband, Jim, were in Niagara Falls, Ont. celebrating a friend's 50th birthday on May 18.

She got a call from one of Juliette's friends saying there had been an accident and they were performing CPR on her daughter. Côté didn't know that Juliette was already gone at that point.

They frantically packed up the car to drive to Kingston General Hospital, which is about a four-hour drive.

She remembers feeling helpless.

"It was the most awful drive ever," she said.

Their son Jack and his girlfriend arrived at the hospital first and called them to tell them Juliette was dead.

"It was just surreal. You don't ever expect anything like that is going to happen to you," Côté said.

Alison Côté (right) and her daughter Juliette Côté (left). Juliette was killed after a boat crash on Bobs Lake in May, 2024. (Supplied by Alison Côté)

At the hospital, they got to see Juliette's boyfriend, Ben Viau, who was one of the five injured in the crash.

"He was just in awful shape," she said. "He was just so apologetic because he thought he had let us down in some way, but of course he hadn't. There's nothing he could do, and he had just lost the love of his life, so it's just hard to see."

Ben and Juliette had been dating for five years and planned to spend the rest of their lives together.

"He'll always be part of our family."

Côté says the idea that two other families have experienced the same tragedy magnifies the sadness.

"They lost the loves of their lives as well," she said. "That's just how we feel. So, I know that's how they feel."

She says they didn't know Orr and Bearman's families before the accident but have been in contact regularly since.

Honouring Juliette

The Côté family wanted to share Juliette's story to honour their daughter.

Her mother described her as the type of person to throw a party for one of her friends if they had a bad week and needed to be cheered up. She was always there for those she cared about.

A photo album made my Juliette. (Jack Richardson/CTV News Ottawa)

"My husband and I just want to live that way going forward," she said.

In a digital age, Juliette made a point of printing photos of herself with friends and family. She had two full albums of pictures and her mother keeps them close by to remember her.

Côté also had a professional relationship with her daughter. They co-owned a design business together.

"We had always sort of just hung out watching HGTV shows, always dreaming about decorating and redecorating, and it was fun to do it at somebody else's house instead of always doing it here," Côté said with a laugh.

But running the business since her passing has been difficult, because Juliette was the star of the whole operation.

"The thing for me was trying to realize whether it was something I was good at without her because she was so talented at it," she said. "We were really looking forward to the future and building the business together."

"It brings me joy just because it makes me feel close to her."