SF Tech Executive, Family Were Celebrating on Lake Tahoe Before Deadly Boat Accident

Updated 2:53 p.m. Tuesday

The widow of a victim of Saturday’s fatal boating accident on Lake Tahoe said the San Francisco-based DoorDash executive and his parents were having a “joyful time” with friends before a surprise storm capsized their power boat.

Josh Pickles, 37, and his parents, Terry Pickles, 73, and Paula Bozinovich, 71, had gone out on the water with friends and family when they were caught by a powerful storm that capsized the boat near D.L. Bliss State Park on the lake’s south shore on Saturday afternoon.

Pickles’ widow, Jordan Sugar-Carlsgaard, said she had stayed back at the family’s Lake Tahoe home with their 7-month-old daughter while the group took the 27-foot Chris-Craft Launch 2 out on the water.

“No words can express the pain and anguish we feel knowing their lives were lost during what was meant to be a joyful time on the lake,” she said in a statement. “Our hearts go out to those who tragically lost their lives and the two survivors of this unexpected and deadly storm on Lake Tahoe.”

Ten people were on the powerboat, which was owned by Pickles and his father, when it flipped. Eight died, and two were rescued and taken to a hospital. Along with Pickles and his parents, who lived in Redwood City, the other victims included Pickles’ uncle Peter Bayes, 72, of Lincoln and Timothy O’Leary, 71, of Auburn, both near Sacramento. The three other victims, Teresa Giullari, 66, James Guck, 69, and Stephen Lindsay, 63, were visiting from upstate New York.

Pickles had worked in strategic sourcing and procurement for DoorDash for more than six years, and previously, he had stints with Bay Area-based Salesforce and Cisco. He and Sugar-Carlsgaard have homes both in Tahoe and the Bay Area.

Sugar-Carlsgaard, who works as a senior executive assistant for Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, said that the group was assembled to celebrate Bozinovich’s 71st birthday over the weekend.

They, along with many other boaters out on the lake, found themselves suddenly caught in a microburst storm, which produces a column of sinking air that can bring strong rains and winds.

The weather deteriorated suddenly as the storm swept across the lake, according to Michael Cane, who works as a lab director and boat captain of UC Davis’s research center in Tahoe.

Winds up to 35 mph blew north to south across the length of the oval-shaped lake, spurring wave heights up to 8 feet along the south shore, where Pickles’ group was boating. The previous week, wave heights in the area hovered below half a foot, according to the UC Davis center’s data.

Dozens of other watercraft sank, capsized and washed ashore in the weekend’s perilous conditions.

The El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office responded at around 3 p.m. Saturday to calls of the overturned boat that Pickles and his group were on, and officials rescued two people and recovered the bodies of six who had died. The other two victims were found by dive teams from local sheriff’s offices in the following days. The identities or conditions of the two survivors have not been provided.

“The El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office extends its deepest heartfelt condolences to the families of those who were lost and all those who have been affected by this tragic event,” the agency said in a statement on Tuesday.

Sugar-Carlsgaard expressed gratitude for their rescue efforts, saying, “We are profoundly thankful for their help in the tragic situation.”

In a statement, DoorDash Chief Financial Officer Ravi Inukonda said the company was “heartbroken” over the death of Pickles.

“Josh loved his team and was an inspiration to everyone who had the privilege of knowing him,” he wrote. “During his nearly seven years at DoorDash, he brought a contagious spirit that lifted those around him. The loss of Josh is immeasurable. We miss him deeply and will carry his memory with us always.”

Friends and family of Guck and Giullari, who appeared to be a couple in social media posts, shared photos of the pair on Facebook after the news. Their daughter-in-law, whose Facebook username is Christine Elizabeth, said that the loss was “unimaginable.”

“My in-laws and their friends were on this boat,” she wrote Monday. “They were on vacation, living their best life, and it has turned into a nightmare.”

“What a lovely couple who enjoyed life. I am shocked and sad,” a commenter wrote under a photo of the pair posted by a friend.

Stephen Lindsay’s sister Diane wrote on Facebook that losing her brother has left her family numb and heartbroken.

“The hole in our hearts will never be made full again,” she wrote of Lindsay, who she called Zippy. He appears to have been married to Bozinovich’s relative, Julie Bozinovich Lindsay. “My brother was the most amazing person. We cannot stop crying. We miss him so much!”