DoorDash executive’s family rocked after this freak Lake Tahoe storm turned a birthday celebration into a nightmare

Sometimes Mother Nature shows just how cruel she can be.

A family gathering meant to celebrate a milestone became an unthinkable tragedy in a matter of minutes.

And a DoorDash executive’s family was rocked after this freak Lake Tahoe storm turned a birthday celebration into a nightmare.

DoorDash executive among eight killed when birthday boat trip goes horribly wrong

Paula Bozinovich thought she was going to have the perfect 71st birthday celebration on Saturday, June 21st.

The Redwood City woman was surrounded by the people she loved most – her husband Terry Pickles, 73, and their son Joshua, 37.

Joshua had made the trip from San Francisco where he worked as the global head of strategic sourcing and procurement for DoorDash.

But what started as a beautiful day on Lake Tahoe turned deadly when an unexpected thunderstorm slammed the area with zero warning.

The weather went from calm and sunny to absolutely brutal in what felt like seconds.

Winds started howling across the lake while massive waves began pounding everything in sight.

Their 27-foot gold Chris-Craft boat – which should have been plenty big enough to handle normal lake conditions – didn’t stand a chance against what hit them.

The vessel capsized near D.L. Bliss State Park, throwing all 10 people on board into the freezing water.

Eight of them never made it out alive.

Joshua leaves behind his wife Jordan Sugar-Carlsgaard and their 7-month-old daughter who thankfully stayed home that day.

His uncle Peter Bayes, 72, from Lincoln, also died in the accident.

The family had invited friends from across the country to join Paula’s birthday celebration, making this tragedy even more heartbreaking.

Those friends – Timothy O’Leary, 71, from Auburn, along with three people from New York including Theresa Giullari, 66, James Guck, 69, and Stephen Lindsay, 63 – all lost their lives too.

Perfect weather turns into every boater’s worst nightmare

Here’s what makes this story so devastating – nobody saw it coming.

Lake Tahoe on a Saturday in June should be one of the safest places in the world to take a boat out.

The forecast that morning didn’t even call for storms, according to local reports.

But by 3 p.m., 911 calls were flooding in about a boat that had capsized and was being battered against the rocks at D.L. Bliss State Park.

Emergency responders found two survivors who had somehow made it to shore, while six bodies were recovered immediately.

The other two victims weren’t found until dive teams searched the lake over the following days.

This wasn’t some rickety old boat that fell apart either.

The Chris-Craft was rated to hold 8 to 10 people, so it wasn’t even overloaded.

But when you’re dealing with what one witness described as waves reaching 8 to 10 feet high and winds topping 35 mph, even the best boats can’t always save you.

One person who was on the lake that day said the temperature dropped from 60 degrees to 35 degrees in about an hour.

That’s the kind of weather that can kill experienced boaters, let alone families just trying to celebrate a birthday.

Joshua had been with DoorDash for nearly seven years and previously worked for big-name companies like Salesforce and Cisco.

His colleagues are devastated by the loss.

"We are heartbroken by the tragic accident," DoorDash said in a statement about losing their valued team member.

Jordan Sugar-Carlsgaard, who works as a senior executive assistant for Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, now faces the unimaginable task of raising their baby daughter alone.

She stayed home with their 7-month-old that Saturday – a decision that probably saved her life and definitely saved their daughter from growing up as an orphan.

The boat had only been taken out twice before since Joshua and his father bought it about a year ago.

This was supposed to be their first real family outing of the season.

Instead, it became the deadliest boating accident in California since 2019 and the worst tragedy Lake Tahoe has seen in recent memory.

Sometimes the most innocent plans turn into the worst possible outcomes, and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop it.

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