Italian yacht disaster victims, including 2 Americans, missing as survivor's father reveals grim text message
Six people, including two Americans, are still missing after a superyacht sunk off the coast of Italy on Monday.
The 184-foot British-flagged Bayesian carrying English entrepreneurs and tourists capsized and sank off Sicily in bad weather early Monday. One body was found, six people remain missing, and 15 people were rescued.
Among the rescued was Ayla Ronald, senior associate at Clifford Chase, a global law firm that recently handed a win to billionaire tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, who was acquitted of fraud accusations in San Francisco in June, according to The Telegraph.
Ronald's father, Lin Ronald, told the outlet that he texted his daughter after the superyacht sank.
MOMENT LUXURY YACHT SINKS OFF COAST OF ITALY CAUGHT ON CAMERA, WITH 6 PRESUMED DEAD
"[S]he hasn’t given me any updates about missing personnel or saved personnel. She has only said to me that there are deaths, and she and her partner are alive," Lin Ronald told The Telegraph, adding that his daughter "is a lawyer who is part of the legal team that was invited to go sailing as a result of the success in the recent United States court case."
Two Americans and four Birtish nationals remain among the missing. The two Americans are Christopher Morvillo, a New York City partner at Clifford Chase who helped with Lynch's fraud case, and his wife, Neda Morvillo, a jewelry designer.
"We are in shock and deeply saddened by this tragic incident. Our thoughts are with our Partner, Christopher Morvillo, and his wife Neda who are among the missing, and with their families," a Clifford Chase spokesperson told Fox News Digital. "Our utmost priority is providing support to the family as well as our colleague Ayla Ronald, who together with her partner, thankfully survived the incident. Our thoughts extend to the other passengers and crew and all those affected. We have no further comment at this time. We, and the families, ask that their request for privacy is honored during this period."
Morvillo, who owns residences in New York City and South Kent, celebrated Lynch's June 6 acquittal on LinkedIn in one of his final social media posts before the luxury boat accident, eerily writing that his family would live "happily ever after."
"A huge thank you to my patient and incredible wife, Neda Morvillo, and my two strong, brilliant and beautiful daughters, Sabrino Morvillo and Sophia Morvillo," he wrote after thanking the legal team that helped in Lynch's legal success.
WHO IS MIKE LYNCH, THE BRITISH TECH ENTREPRENEUR MISSING AFTER YACHT SANK?
The boat sank sometime around 5 a.m. Monday near the port of Porticello, where it was anchored, according to the Italian coast guard. There were a total of 10 crew members and 12 passengers aboard the ship at the time.
"The wind was very strong. Bad weather was expected, but not of this magnitude," a coast guard official in Palermo told Reuters.
Fox News' Pilar Arias, Christina Coulter and The Associated Press contributed to this report.