New York designer found dead aboard swanky yacht was killed by boat's owner, family claims in legal filing

Published: 23:33, 4 August 2026 | Updated: 23:40, 4 August 2026 The family of a New York-based fashion designer found dead onboard a luxury yacht is planning to file a wrongful death suit against the investor who owned the boat. Martha Nolan-O'Slatarra, 33, met up with Christopher Durnan the night of August 4, 2025 onboard his yacht, Ripple, at the ritzy Montauk Yacht Club in the Hamptons to discuss her swimwear fashion company East x East. But the meet-up ended in horror when Durnan dashed down the dock naked around midnight, screaming for help and indicating that his blonde, blue-eyed guest had passed out. Bystanders then clambered on board Ripple to try to revive her, but Nolan-O'Slatarra was declared dead at the scene. The Irish fashionista's family is now planning to file a $50 million wrongful death suit against Durnan in New York Supreme Court, according to a filing on Tuesday – exactly one year after they learned of Nolan-O'Slatarra's untimely passing. It accuses Durnan, who is believed to have invested more than $200,000 in Nolan-O'Slatarra's beauty boutique, of causing her death through assault and negligence. The filing claims Durnan, a father-of-two, 'intentionally and wrongfully assaulted' the fashion designer without detailing the specific accusations against him. It further accuses Durnan of gross negligence, recklessness and wanton conduct that directly caused Nolan-O'Slatarra's death – either individually or in combination with one another. The family is now seeking 'to recover damages for the personal injuries and conscious pain and suffering sustained by Martha Nolan-O'Slatarra prior to her death' as well as punitive damages and pecuniary damages to her family, according to the filing obtained by the Daily Mail.  Martha Nolan-O'Slatarra, 33, the founder of swimwear brand East x East, was found unresponsive aboard a ritzy yacht in Montauk on August 5, 2025 before being declared dead at the scene Nolan-O'Slatarra's family is now planning to file a wrongful death suit against Christopher Durnan, the owner of the yacht who had invested more than $200,000 into the fashion designer's beauty boutique The yacht where Nolan-O'Slatarra was found unresponsive is pictured  But the summons comes as the Nolan-O'Slatarra family continues to press the Suffolk County police for answers about her mysterious death. 'We are in the same place where we were this time 12 months ago,' a source close to the family told the Irish Independent. 'We knew, and were being told, very little then — and we know even less now.' Detectives have only said that an initial post-mortem examination 'did not show evidence of violence and her final cause of death is pending further investigation.' Sources have previously speculated that Nolan-O'Slatarra succumbed to a drug overdose after photographs from the plush yacht showed a dusting of mysterious white powder across a seat on the 50-foot cabin-cruiser. However, sources close to the family told the New York Post that an independent autopsy they had commissioned showed the designer had only 'trace amounts of cocaine' in her system. Instead, they claimed, it found some sort of assault led directly to Nolan-O'Slatarra's death. Nolan-O'Slatarra's family has denied she died of a cocaine overdose The fashion designer had recently celebrated the opening of her East x East popup shop at Gurney's Montauk Resort and Seawater Spa Durnan had previously been accused of assault when Michael Balfe, a retired firefighter, claimed in a 2022 lawsuit he was 'viciously attacked, bit and assaulted' during a gig at New York's Webster Hall. Balfe, 61, said the unprovoked assault on September 11, 2021 – the 20th anniversary of 9/11 – left him 'seriously injured both physically and mentally.' He sued Durnan for battery and Webster Hall for negligence, claiming security guards at the storied East Village venue, which has hosted the likes of Madonna, Metallica and U2, didn't step in fast enough to protect him. Criminal court filings reveal Durnan was arrested on misdemeanor charges, including possession of a controlled substance and assault, but pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and was handed a one-year conditional discharge. He claimed, however, that he was acting in 'justifiable self-defense' and that Balfe was the 'initial aggressor' in their civil suit, which was settled in December 2023.  An attorney representing Durnan now maintains that he was not responsible for Nolan-O'Slatarra's untimely death. Robert Holdman instead claimed that Nolan-O'Slatarra went limp between 10.30pm to 11pm on the night of August 4, and Durnan feared she was having a heart attack. At that point, Durnan tried to perform CPR but it was to no avail, the lawyer claimed. 'She was gone almost immediately,' Holdman told New York Magazine last year. 'She was non-responsive.' The lawyer then went on to claim that his client stripped his clothes off that night because they were 'soaked' with Nolan-O'Slatarra's vomit.  Self-made entrepreneur Martha grew up in Carlow, Ireland before moving to New York and creating a jet-setting life of luxury for herself that's often associated with Manhattan's elite Nolan-O'Slatarra arrived in the US about a decade ago and soon took to her glam new life in the Big Apple, telling The Irish Independent in a 2024 interview that she 'loved' living on the Upper East Side. She was seen sipping champagne, taking a private jet to Nashville for a concert and cozying up to her sales exec boyfriend Nicholas DiRubio during a helicopter ride in TikTok posts. The fashionista went on to establish several companies, including fashion accessories brand Duper and luxury swimwear label East x East. But the petite designer was also involved in a legal dispute when a former employer claimed in a 2022 lawsuit that she stole $34,000 from a company bank account. She denied the allegation, and the case was settled. Nolan-O'Slatarra also married and later split from a man named Sam Ryan, finalizing an uncontested divorce just months before her death. The Daily Mail has reached out to an attorney for Nolan-O'Slatarra's family for more information. An attorney representing Durnan could not be reached for comment.