① The current investigation shows that the four victims showed no signs of injury, and there was no fluid accumulation in their lungs. It is presumed that they died of suffocation due to running out of oxygen in the cabin; ② the autopsy of the remaining 3 will be carried out on Friday; ③ the Italian prosecution is investigating the captain and crew through multiple negligent murders and negligent shipwrecks.
Financial Services Association, September 5 (Financial Services Association Shi Zhengcheng) In the middle of last month, tech billionaire Mike Lynch (Mike Lynch), known as the “Bill Gates of England,” unexpectedly died in a luxury yacht shipwreck case. Investigations into this incident have begun to enter a new stage in recent days.
A total of 7 people, including Lynch, were killed in this incident, including his daughter Hannah, Jonathan Blumer and his wife, Chairman of Morgan Stanley International Investment Bank, Mr. and Mrs. Chris Morvello, an American lawyer, and Caldo Thomas, who worked as a chef on the yacht. These people originally gathered to celebrate Lynch's complete withdrawal from criminal charges in the US court in June of this year, and never wanted to die in Sicily.
According to the latest reports in Italian media, the autopsies of Mr. and Mrs. Bloomers and Mr. Morvello have now been completed, restoring what happened in the last moment of their lives.
The autopsy results showed that none of the four had any water in their lungs, which indicates that they had suffocated before drowning. The divers found the bodies of four people on the left side of the cabin. Investigators believe this was after the boat slanted to the right and sank. The four tried to find the last oxygen in the cabin, and eventually suffocated in carbon dioxide “bubbles.”
The report said that the current examination results showed no signs of injury to the four victims.
The autopsies of Lynch, Hannah, and Thomas will be carried out on Friday, and the investigation team also expects to salvage the wreckage of the yacht in the sea for search.
A ten-year dispute caused by a takeover
As mentioned earlier, the reason for the Lynch shipwreck case was that these people celebrated winning a fraud lawsuit in the US.
In 2011, Lynch sold the Autonomy he founded to Hewlett-Packard in the US for 8.3 billion pounds. Just 1 year later, HP wrote down 5.5 billion pounds of goodwill and accused Lynch of fraud during the transaction. Last year, US prosecutors successfully extradited Lynch to the US for trial, but in the June trial this year, a jury found Lynch and Stephen Chamberland, then vice president of Autonomy, not guilty.
Just two days before Lynch's yacht sank, Chamberlain was hit and killed by a car while running near his home.
Additionally, financial veteran Jonathan Blumer, who died in the yacht incident, was the chairman of Autonomy's audit committee. Chris Morvello is the defense attorney who helped Lynch win the fraud case. He served as an assistant attorney for the Southern District of New York and participated in the investigation of the 9/11 incident.
Investigations target “negligent shipwrecks”
In addition to the 7 people killed, there were 22 people on board at the time of the incident, including 10 crew members. Fifteen people, including Lynch's wife Angela Bacares, managed to escape the incident.
According to limited reports, Bacares revealed that she and Lynch were “awakened” by the boat slanted on its side at around 4 a.m., but did not elaborate on what happened later.
The Italian prosecution is currently investigating Captain James Catterfield, as well as two British crew members — engineer Tim Parker Eaton and crew member Matthew Griffiths. The charges include multiple manslaughter and negligent shipwreck.
The “Bayes”, which cost up to 30 million pounds, is one of the largest sailing yachts in the world. Why did many small boats in the surrounding area sink alone while safely weathering the storm is also the main question of this incident. Currently, the ship is lying on its side on the 50-meter-deep seabed.
The three have now been allowed to leave Sicily, and investigators are still trying to figure out what happened between the time the ship hit the storm at 3:50 and sinking at 4:06 on the same day. Earlier, Eaton had publicly denied that the ship's hatch was open that night, causing seawater to pour into the cabin.
The media quoted Catterfield's testimony as saying that at the time, Griffith asked him that the wind speed had reached 20 knots, then when he went out to tell others, the boat suddenly tilted to 45 degrees and held for a while, then tilted in the other direction and threw them into the sea. Catterfield said that after that, they tried to get back on the boat and try their best to save everyone they could.