Police Establish Timeline in Fatal Irving Canal Crash

Investigators say it could be eight to 10 weeks before toxicology reports are available

Irving police have established a timeline leading up to the crash that killed three people in a Las Colinas canal early Wednesday morning.

Maintenance workers discovered the wrecked car in the canal north of Northwest Highway near Riverside Drive on Wednesday.

The body of Southlake attorney Ronald Cary Eddins, 41, was recovered from the driver's seat. Beside him was Kaat Debeuckalaer, 21, of Colleyville.

Divers recovered the body of her boyfriend, Kenneth Lark, 23, of Austin, on Thursday morning.

Irving police spokesman Officer John Argumaniz said the couple met Eddins for the first time Tuesday night at Copeland's restaurant bar in the Southlake Hilton Hotel.

"It's our understanding that they did not know each other prior to the hotel, and I'm assuming that they just became acquainted or met one another at the hotel and just conversation started after the point, and then it went from there," he said.

Irving detectives have verified that the couple attended a Dallas Stars game at the American Airlines Center at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

By about 11 p.m., they were at the Hilton Hotel bar in the Southlake Town Square.

Eddins' office was in the Southlake Town Square, and a hotel manager said he recently had been living at the Hilton.

Court records show Eddins' wife filed for divorce in December.

All three were seen leaving the Hilton before 1 a.m., Argumaniz said.

At about 1 a.m., they arrived at The Men's Club, a strip club on Northwest Highway in Dallas.

A manager at The Men's club told NBC 5 that Eddins was served only one drink while he was there.

A witness told police the three left The Men's Club at about 2:45 a.m. Wednesday.

A neighbor near the canal on Northwest Highway in Irving reported hearing a loud crashing sound at about 2:55 a.m.

"As best as we've been able to determine, it appears as if those were the locations they'd went to," Argumaniz said.

Police are waiting for results of toxicology reports from the Dallas County Medical Examiner's Office to determine if Eddins, the driver, was impaired at the time of the wreck.

If so, the establishments that served him drinks could be held responsible for the wreck.

"There's always the question of foul play, if anything contributed to the accident, and this is all part if the process of eliminating any possibility of any foul play," Argumaniz said.

The Dallas County Medical Examiner's Office said it could be eight to 10 weeks before test results are available.

Bluebonnet Hills Funeral Home in Colleyville is handling funeral arrangements for Debeuckalaer.

Greenwood Funeral Home in Fort Worth is handling arrangements for Eddins.

Funeral arrangements for Lark were still pending as of Friday afternoon.

A visitation for Debeuckalaer is set for 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday at the Colleyville funeral home with services on Tuesday at Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Colleyville.

Her parents said Debeuckalaer was a senior biology major at the University of Texas at Austin and that Lark was a recent UT business school graduate.

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