The mysterious death of an Irish fashion designer has taken another strange turn as eerie text messages reveal her friends joked about her dying just hours before she was found lifeless aboard a yacht in New York.
Martha Nolan-O'Slattara, from Co Carlow, was found dead on a private yacht docked in the Montauk area of the Hamptons, in the early morning hours of August 5. The 33-year-old had gone to the Montauk Yacht Club to meet insurance executive Christopher Durnan.
The pair had arranged to meet to discuss funding for her swimwear fashion label East x East. Durnan, who became a boisterous presence in the Hamptons after losing his wife to suicide in 2018, had told Martha: "If you guys are looking for more money, let’s sit down and talk about it," New York Magazine reports.
On the evening of Martha's death, the pair departed the dock on Durnan's boat to drink champagne and watch the sunset. A couple of hours later, Martha's friends became concerned.
She had told her boyfriend, Nick DiRubio, that she'd planned to take an Uber home by 1am but had stopped responding to messages in a group chat with her friends. They used the Find My app to check her location, which showed her somewhere in the Atlantic.
One friend made an eerie joke, writing in the group chat at 9:20 pm: "Lmao. I’m sure her phone died. Or maybe she’s dead." However, Martha messaged back 10 minutes later.
"Lol I’m at the yacht club now, my phone is on," she replied. The series of events that followed are still under investigation by the Suffolk County Police, but just an hour or so after Martha's response, she was dead.
The fashion designer was found slumped and unresponsive on Durnan's boat. At the same time, witnesses reported seeing Durnan running naked along the dock while shouting for help and throwing sunscreen at a nearby boat.
Friends have questioned the unusual incident. One told New York Magazine: "I think for me it’s like, ‘Why is the man naked, right?’ That’s the part where I’m like: ‘Did something happen to this girl?’"
Durnan's lawyer, Robert Holdman, said insurance executive removed his clothes because they'd become "soaked" in Martha's vomit. Durnan told police that Martha collapsed at around 10:30 or 11pm and that he thought she was having a heart attack.
Holdman said his client attempted to perform CPR but claimed Martha "was gone almost immediately. She was nonresponsive." However, Durnan did not call 911.
It was actually a bystander who made the call, which was received at around midnight. Holdman denied that there had been any delay between Martha becoming unresponsive and 911 being called.
“It all happened immediately,” he said. “She passed away and everything went down from there. He went running to go look for help. He tried CPR, like it all happened one right after another. There was no pause.”
He added that Durnan “doesn’t remember how long he did CPR” and said he is cooperating fully with police. Holdman said that Martha left to use a bathroom twice during the evening, suggesting this “could be an indication of someone going to the bathroom, it could be an indication of someone doing drugs, or it could be both.”
He also claimed that white powder visible in photos from the deck was residue from police fingerprinting and said that Durnan has been left "distraught" over Martha's death.
Martha studied commerce at University College Dublin before going on to complete a master’s in digital marketing at the Smurfit Graduate School of Business. She moved to the US in 2015 and launched several fashion brands.
East Hampton Town Police said after her death that there was "no evidence of violence" related to the incident. Police are now reportedly looking into whether drugs may have played a role. A final cause of death is still pending toxicology, histology and further tests, which could take several months.
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