Husband and wife are thrown from boat and die in crash off Texas coast, officials say

Two boats crashed off the Texas coast on Saturday, Aug. 6, killing a husband and wife in one of the vessels, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

The crash happened around 9:15 p.m. near Freeport on the Gulf of Mexico, Coast Guard officials said. Four people were traveling on a 22-foot boat when it crashed with a 24-foot vessel, which was carrying a husband and wife.

Three passengers on the 22-foot boat were ejected, as were the married couple in the second boat, officials said. Two of the first boat’s passengers swam to the 24-foot boat to look for their still-missing family member, and a Coast Guard crew eventually found the survivor “conscious with a minor injury.”

The husband and wife were discovered dead, according to the Coast Guard. Crews first found the woman’s body, and they found the man at around midnight.

They were identified by friends as Ned and Julie Baron, who were from Brazoria, Texas.

Coast Guard officials said the Barons’ boat did not have its lights on, while the other vessel did.

“That would present a major hazard when boating at night,” Coast Guard Petty Officer First Class Corinne Zilnicki told Brazoria County newspaper The Facts.

Julie Baron was the co-director for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Brazoria County.

Her co-director, Nicole Parker Hardesty, said their shared passion and friendship helped them work together at the organization.

“I will miss her talking to herself, asking what’s for lunch, telling me she is starving, that she ‘might’ have pulled a dog or 4 from county, her phone was at 1% and a million other things,” Hardesty wrote on Facebook. “She has been my work wife for the last few years. I will be lost without her calling so we can talk things through.”

Ned and Julie Baron had two adult children together, according to the SPCA.

Two men in the other boat had minor injuries, according to the Coast Guard.

“Although this case did not end the way we wanted, with all boaters safe and unharmed, we are thankful that teamwork with our commercial and agency partners enabled us to assist the survivors quickly,” said Jeremy Borja a command duty officer with the Coast Guard Sector Houston-Galveston. “We offer our heartfelt sympathies to the family of the two boaters who didn’t make it and wish them swift healing in the wake of this tragedy.”