Inset, left to right: Michael Collins (Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection's Environmental Conservation Police) and Dominick Tocci (Gilman Funeral Home). Background: The Connecticut lake where Collins and Tocci were canoeing when Tocci went missing (Google Maps).
A 20-year-old college student in New York is facing criminal charges nearly four months after a canoe carrying him and a fellow Holy Cross student capsized on a Connecticut lake, leaving his friend dead.
Michael Collins turned himself in last week after authorities obtained a warrant charging him with operating a boat under the influence in connection with the March 21 incident on Lake Hayward in East Haddam that resulted in the death of 20-year-old Dominick Tocci, authorities announced.
According to a news release from the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection's Environmental Conservation Police, Collins and Tocci were on the lake with a group of friends when the canoe they were sharing overturned. Good Samaritans rescued Collins from the water, but Tocci seemingly disappeared, with police writing that he "went missing in the water."
EnCon Police launched an extensive search that lasted two days before recovering Tocci's body on the afternoon of March 23.
Authorities allege both men had been drinking before launching the canoe. Based on evidence gathered during the investigation, EnCon Police secured an arrest warrant for Collins on June 30.
Collins surrendered to officers at Connecticut State Police Troop K, where he was arrested and later released on a promise to appear. He is scheduled to appear in Middletown Superior Court on July 23.
Tocci and Collins were both students at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, according to a report from the Telegram & Gazette. A spokesperson for the school confirmed to the newspaper that Collins remained enrolled but declined to comment on the criminal charge.
Tocci was a junior majoring in political science who was expected to graduate in 2027, the newspaper reported. According to his LinkedIn profile, he interned with the Worcester County District Attorney's Office in 2024.
His obituary remembered him as "someone everyone wanted to be around," recalling that coaches described him as "the kind of teammate who made the dugout lighter, and the kind of person you never forget." A lifelong sports fan, Tocci was known among friends and family as a "human sports encyclopedia" who could rattle off obscure player statistics from memory and passionately followed the Boston Red Sox, Celtics and Patriots.
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