A second person has died following a car crash in Belgrade on Saturday that police blamed on alcohol and excessive speed.

Jackson Bolduc, 25, of Belgrade, died from his injuries Sunday night, said Maine State Police spokesman Steve McCausland.

Bolduc, who was sitting in the backseat when the crash happened, was flown to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor by LifeFlight helicopter Saturday night. He died less than 24 hours after his girlfriend, Kristin Lawler, 20, of Oakland, who was sitting in the front passenger’s seat, was pronounced dead at the crash scene.

Police have said the driver, Lawler’s 22-year-old brother, Travis Lawler, fled the crash and is expected to face charges, though none had been filed Monday. Police said they found him on the shore of Great Pond, but Travis Lawler said in a brief phone interview Monday he was in the water.

“I didn’t flee the scene,” Lawler said. He said he did not remember leaving, why he left or where the group had been before the crash. “I don’t know why I got found in the water.”

He said he did not know how far into the water he was when police found him.

Lawler declined to answer additional questions, but his uncle David Leeman, of Hollis, said he has talked at length with his nephew about what happened. Leeman believes Lawler was disoriented by the crash and was trying to find his sister when police found him about a half-mile away from the wreck.

“He was in a state of shock,” Leeman said. “He thought he was searching for her and didn’t know where she was.”

A fourth person, Dylan Desroches, 20, of Waterville, who was sitting in the back with Bolduc, was listed in good condition Monday at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston. Desroches was flown to the hospital by LifeFlight with serious injuries.

The accident occurred about 11 p.m. Saturday on Horse Point Road in Belgrade, a dead-end road that runs between Great Pond to Smithfield Road, which is Route 8.

Police said Travis Lawler lost control of the 2011 Toyota Carolla on a curve near the Stevens Road/Merryweather Lane intersection and slammed nearly head-on into a tree at a high rate of speed.

“Troopers say alcohol and speed are the cause the crash,” McCausland said.

He said Lawler will likely be charged, but a final decision won’t come for a few weeks until the investigation is complete and the district attorney reviews the crash report, McCausland said.

‘They were very close’

Police have said Lawler, a U.S. Marine home on leave from North Carolina, fled from the scene on foot and was found along the shore of Great Pond after a resident called to report a person on his property.

But Lawler’s uncle said the group had been at a beach and Lawler, in shock at seeing his dead sister, returned to the water to find her.

“It’s not because he was drunk,” Leeman said of Lawler leaving the crash scene. “He admits to having drinks and being over the limit, but he was not trashed to the point of blacking out.”

Police have said none of the three passengers was wearing a seat belt. Investigators have not yet determined if Travis Lawler was buckled in, but his uncle says he was.

“He survived simply because he was wearing a seat belt,” Leeman said.

Leeman said Travis Lawler made a terrible mistake getting behind the wheel of the car after drinking. He has been floored by the consequences of that decision.

Leeman said the sister and brother “were very close.”

“He feels like it should have been him,” Leeman said.

He said Kristin Lawler and Bolduc didn’t drink. The couple went fishing earlier in the day.

“That’s what they loved to do,” Leeman said. “I did not know (Bolduc), but I understand he was wonderful. They were madly in love.”

A woman who answered the phone Monday at Bolduc’s home declined to be interviewed.

A distraught family

Leeman said Kristin Lawler’s smile could save people from dark days and worry.

“Kristin was a beautiful, charismatic young woman,” he said.

According to her obituary, she was an honor student who graduated in 2010 from Messalonskee High School, and she loved hunting and fishing. She worked at Bearly Used Co-signment Shop in Waterville.

She and her twin brother, Brandon, are the youngest of Bill and Kathy Lawler’s five children. Kristin was the only girl.

“They’re all very distraught,” Leeman said of the family.

According to published reports, all four people in the car graduated from Messalonskee High School in Oakland. Kristin Lawler and Desroches, both of whom were honor students, graduated in 2010; Bolduc, also an honor student, graduated in 2005; and Travis Lawler graduated in 2008.

His Facebook page says Lawler joined the Marines shortly after graduation and works as a landing support specialist.

He was three months from being discharged from the Marines, but he had recently talked enthusiastically about re-enlisting. He served in Iraq and in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake, Leeman said.

“He’s a Marine who served his country with respect and honor,” Leeman said. “I know he made a mistake and there is no excuse for drunk driving, but people do make mistakes. That’s what this was. It was a tragic mistake where my niece and her boyfriend lost their lives.

“That’s something Travis is going to have to live with for rest of his life.”

Craig Crosby — 621-5642

ccrosby@mainetoday.com