Top New York lawyer and his jewelry designer wife are among six still missing after superyacht sank off Sicilian coast
A wealthy American couple are among six people missing after a superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily.
Christopher Morvillo and his wife Neda have not been seen since the Bayesian ship ran aground off the coast of Palermo on Monday morning after encountering bad weather.
Christopher, 59, worked as a lawyer for British tech billionaire Mike Lynch, who chartered the ship to celebrate a recent legal victory.
He is a partner at the prestigious law firm Clifford Chance, which has offices around the world.
Christopher served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1999 to 2005.
Neda, 57, has her own luxury jewelry line under her maiden name, Neda Nassiri.
The couple has an apartment on New York’s Upper East Side. They also own a $2.3 million, four-bedroom, five-bathroom luxury home in South Kent, Connecticut.
Neda Morvillo and her husband Christopher Morvillo are both missing after the superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily on Monday
Christopher Morvillo, left, works for Clifford Chance, a prestigious law firm. His wife Neda, right, runs her own high-end jewelry line under her maiden name Neda Nassiri
The luxury sailing ship Bayesian was moored off the coast of Porticello when a waterspout hit the area at around 5am on Monday
Divers are scouring the sea for the missing person at the site where the superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily on August 19
They have two daughters: 27-year-old Sabrina, a voice actress, and 23-year-old Sophia, who attended the prestigious theater program at Northwestern University.
The couple’s identities were first revealed by the Daily Mail on Monday evening.
Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah are also missing.
Lynch invited guests aboard the luxury liner after his recent victory in a fraud case. Lawyers from Clifford Chance – including Christopher Morvillo – and colleagues from his firm Invoke Capital were among those in attendance.
Jonathan Bloomer, the London-based chairman of Morgan Stanley International, and his wife remain missing.
Thomas Recaldo, the ship’s Canadian-born cook, died in the sinking.
Mike Lynch chartered the yacht to celebrate a legal victory and is one of the six missing. He is pictured with his wife Angela, who was rescued
Morgan Stanley International Chairman Jonathan Bloomer (pictured) and his wife are also missing.
The Bayesian had ten crew members on board: Lynch, his wife and daughter Hannah, and nine other guests.
The tragedy unfolded when the 180-foot superyacht was hit by a waterspout, destroying and sinking the vessel.
Fifteen people were rescued from the yacht, including Mike Lynch’s wife Angela Becares, 57.
She said the first signs of trouble came when the Bayesian developed a “slight tilt” around 4am on Monday morning, waking her up.
Becares and others now anxiously await news of their missing loved ones as the search and rescue operation continues.
It is feared that some of the missing were asleep when the waterspout struck, ending their chances of escaping the sinking ship.
Luxury sailboat Bayesian sank quickly after being caught in a ‘whirlwind’ in Sicily
Charlotte Golunski, 36, (pictured) also outlived her husband and her one-year-old baby
Lawyer Ayla Ronald, 36, (pictured), who was part of the successful legal team invited to sail with Lynch, is one of the survivors
Among the survivors is a 15-month-old girl named Sofia, who was held in the water by her mother Charlotte Golunski, 36.
Golunski, who works with Lynch at Invoke, told Italian newspaper Republicca:
‘I kept her afloat with all my strength, my arms reaching up to keep her from drowning.
‘It was completely dark. In the water I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I screamed for help, but all I could hear around me were the screams of others.’
Golunski’s husband James Emsilie, 36, is also a survivor, as is Clifford Chance’s attorney Ayla Ronald, 36.
Other survivors included Irish woman Sasha Murray, 29, Matthew Fletcher, 41, from London, James Calfield, 51, from New Zealand, Myin Htun Kyaw, 39, from Myanmar and French captain Matthew Griffith.
They were rescued by crews from nearby boats, including Karsten Borner, the captain of a sailing ship anchored near the Bayesian, who said his team struggled to keep their boat afloat when the tornado struck.
Fabio Cefalu, a fisherman in Porticello who witnessed the tragedy, said he saw a waterspout – a kind of mini-tornado – shortly before 4am that lasted about 12 minutes.
At around 4:10 a.m., he said he saw a red flare go off from Bayesian, but when he reached the area about 20 minutes later, the yacht had all but disappeared. “We only found the cushions and a few planks floating in the water,” he said.