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 capsized off Palermo on Monday morning after being caught in bad weather.
Christopher, 59, was working as a lawyer for British tech billionaire Mike Lynch, who had 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 previously served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1999 to 2005.
Neda, 57, has her own line of luxury jewelry under her maiden name, Neda Nassiri.
The couple has an apartment on New York’s Upper East Side and also owns a luxurious four-bedroom, five-bathroom home valued at $2.3 million in South Kent, Connecticut.
Neda Morvillo and her husband Christopher Morvillo are missing after the superyacht sank on Monday off the coast of Sicily
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 yacht Bayesian was docked off the coast of Porticello when a waterspout hit the area shortly before 5 a.m. Monday.
Divers are searching the sea for the missing at the site where the superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily on August 19.
They have two daughters: Sabrina, 27, a voice actress, and Sophia, 23, who studied theater at Northwestern University.
The couple’s identities were first revealed by the Daily Mail on Monday evening.
Also missing are Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah.
Lynch invited guests aboard the luxury vessel after winning a recent fraud trial. Among those on board were lawyers from Clifford Chance, including Christopher Morvillo, and colleagues from his firm Invoke Capital.
Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of London-based Morgan Stanley International, and his wife remain missing.
Thomas Recaldo, the ship’s cook, born in Canada, died in the sinking.
Mike Lynch chartered the yacht to celebrate a legal victory and is among 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 was carrying ten crew members, Lynch, his wife and daughter Hannah, as well as nine other guests.
The tragedy unfolded when the 180-foot superyacht was hit by a waterspout which destroyed the vessel and sank it.
Fifteen people were rescued from the yacht, including Mike Lynch’s wife, Angela Becares, 57.
She said the first sign of trouble came when the Bayesian developed a “slight tilt” around 4 a.m. Monday morning that woke her up.
Becares and others are now anxiously awaiting 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 storm struck, hampering their chances of escaping the sinking ship.
Luxury yacht Bayesian sank rapidly after being caught in a ‘whirlwind’ off Sicily
Charlotte Golunski, 36 (pictured), her husband and one-year-old baby also survived.
Attorney 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 was a 15-month-old girl named Sofia, who was held in the water by her mother Charlotte Golunski, 36.
Golunski, who works alongside Lynch at Invoke, told Italian newspaper Republicca:
‘I kept her afloat with all my strength, with my arms stretched upwards to prevent her from drowning.
‘It was pitch black. I couldn’t keep my eyes open in the water. I screamed for help, but all I could hear around me were the screams of others.’
Golunski’s husband, James Emsilie, 36, is another survivor, as is Clifford Chance’s attorney, Ayla Ronald, 36.
Other survivors included Irishwoman 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 nearby boat crews, including Karsten Borner, the captain of a sailboat anchored near the Bayesian, who said his crew struggled to keep their boat afloat when the tornado hit.
Fabio Cefalu, a fisherman from Porticello who witnessed the tragedy, said he saw a waterspout, a sort of mini tornado, that lasted about 12 minutes shortly before 4 a.m.
At about 4.10am, he said he saw a red flare sent out by Bayesian, but by the time he was able to reach the area, about 20 minutes later, the yacht had all but disappeared. “We only found the cushions and some planks floating in the water,” he said.