Autopsies have been carried out on two victims who drowned when the super yacht Bayesian sank last month in a freak storm with the loss of seven lives.
Tech billionaire Mike Lynch, 59, and his daughter Hannah, 18, who was due to start at Oxford University later this month were among those who died.
Mr Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares, Hannah’s mother, survived along with 14 others after the £30 million vessel sank off the coast of the Italian island of Sicily at Porticello near Palermo on August 19.
The first autopsies were carried out on lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda, and confirmed that they drowned, sources said on Monday.
There were ‘no signs’ of any other injuries and autopsies on the other victims will continue for the rest of the week alongside the judicial investigation.
All the victims were passengers except for the boat’s cook Recaldo Thomas.
His body was the first to be recovered after the yacht sank.
Three crew members are currently under investigation in Italy for suspected multiple negligent manslaughter and causing a shipwreck, including captain James Cutfield.
Cutfield exercised his right to remain silent when questioned by prosecutors on Tuesday, his lawyers said.
They explained that he was ‘worn out’ and that they needed more time to build a defense case.
One of the Bayesian yacht survivors previously said the crew ‘saved who we could’ as the boat sank.
Matthew Griffiths was one of 22 people on board the Bayesian when it was devastated by a freak waterspout just a few hundred metres away from Porticello port in the early hours of August 19.
The 22-year-old, who was on watch duty on the night of the tragedy, told investigators that the crew members did everything they could to save those on board the Bayesian, according to comments reported by Italian news agency Ansa.
‘I woke up the captain when the wind was at 20 knots (23 mph). He gave orders to wake everyone else,’ Ansa quoted Griffiths as saying.
‘The ship tilted and we were thrown into the water. Then we managed to get back up and tried to rescue those we could,’ he added, describing the events of the fateful night, when the Bayesian had been anchored off the Sicilian port.
‘We were walking on the walls (of the boat). We saved who we could, Cutfield also saved the little girl and her mother,’ he said, referring to passenger Charlotte Golunski and her one-year-old daughter. In all there were 15 survivors of the wreck.
Prosecutor Raffaele Cammarano said last week that the vessel was most likely hit by a ‘downburst,’ a very strong downward wind.
However, the sinking has puzzled naval marine experts, who said a vessel like the Bayesian, built by Italian high-end yacht manufacturer Perini, should have withstood the storm and, in any case, should not have sunk as quickly as it did.
Prosecutors in the town of Termini Imerese, near Palermo, have said their investigation will take time, with the wreck yet to be salvaged from the sea.
They are currently investigating whether human error may have caused the disaster with claims that ‘portholes and hatches’ were left open which led to the ship being engulfed by water and sinking in just 16 minutes.
Chief engineer Tim Parker Eaton, 56, who is from the UK was also been named as one of the crew members who is under investigation.
Mr Parker Eaton, 56, has told prosecutors he followed procedures and made sure all was watertight as the storm engulfed the yacht.
According to excerpts from Mr Parker Eaton’s statement, leaked to the Italian media, he insisted all doors and openings on the yacht were shut.
He said: ‘I activated the generators and the hydraulic pump for the rudder.’
When asked crucially if all portholes and hatches, including where the yacht’s tender was kept, were closed he replied: ‘Everything was shut.
‘The only thing open was the hatch to the engine room which from my point of view would not have caused the disaster because it was at the other end from where the yacht went down.’
Lynch, 59, had invited friends and family onto the boat to celebrate his recent acquittal in a huge US fraud case when the tragedy occurred earlier this month.
The 56-metre (185-foot) yacht was struck by a storm when it was anchored off Porticello, near Palermo, and sank within minutes.
The bodies of Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah and friends were recovered over the subsequent days in a major search operation.
Chief prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio, who is heading the investigation, has said his team will consider each possible element of responsibility including those of the captain, the crew, individuals in charge of supervision and the yacht’s manufacturer.
Investigators are focusing on how a sailing vessel deemed ‘unsinkable’ by its manufacturer, Italian shipyard Perini Navi, sank while a nearby sailboat remained largely unscathed.
Prosecutors said the event was ‘extremely rapid’ and could have been a ‘downburst’ – a localized, powerful wind that descends from a thunderstorm and spreads out rapidly on hitting the ground.
Celebrating a big win against the DOJ then dies from a freak accident. His business partner was hit while jogging days earlier and died in the hospital on the same day as Lynch did.
But as always, don’t believe your eyes. Just another big coincidence
Whoa! Knew none of this. Thanks for the information.
The big yacht was supposedly hit by a “water spout” msm called a “water tornado” (a new term for this incident only) Although a water spout has never sunk a vessel in history. This was also one of many boats in the area but it just picked this one out of the crowd. And we are just supposed to believe it. Then throw in the business partner being killed too in a completely different incident. BS.
You mean they actually had to do an autopsy of two people who were found dead at sea after the yacht they were on sank to determine their cause of death?