An Italian prosecutor has opened an investigation into the murder of Lynch's yacht By Reuters
TERMINI IMERESE, Italy (Reuters) – An Italian prosecutor has opened an investigation into the murder of British scientist Mike Lynch and six other people when a luxury yacht sank off Sicily this week.
The head of the Termini Imerese public prosecutor's office, Ambrogio Cartosio, announced the investigation in a press conference, saying that the investigation so far has not targeted anyone.
Lynch's daughter, Hannah, 18, was also among those killed when the family's 56-metre yacht, the Bayesian, capsized in a heavy storm, before dawn on Monday near Porticello, near Palermo. .
Fifteen people survived, including Lynch's wife, his company Bayesian, and the boat's captain.
Captain James Cutfield and other survivors were questioned this week by authorities. None of them have publicly commented on how the ship went down.
Raffaele Cammarano, another prosecutor speaking at the same press conference, said that when authorities questioned Cutfield he was “very cooperative”.
Pulling Bayesia from the ocean may help investigators figure out what happened, but the operation is likely to be complex and expensive. The wreck apparently lies completely on its side at a depth of 50 meters (164 feet).
“It is in the interests of the owners and managers of the ship to salvage it,” Cartosio said, adding that they “guaranteed their full cooperation”.
He said there is no legal obligation for the captain, crew and passengers to stay in Italy but the authorities expect them to cooperate with the investigation.
The sinking has puzzled marine experts who say a boat like the Bayesian, built by Italian luxury boat manufacturer Perini, should have withstood the storm and in any case should not have sunk as quickly as it did.
Giovanni Costantino, CEO of the Italian Sea Group, which owns Perini, told Reuters this week that the shipwreck was the result of a series of “inexplicable, senseless” errors made by the crew, and ruled out any design or construction failure.
BODY LOCKING
Cammarano said that the passengers were almost all asleep during the storm and that's why they failed to escape.
Divers have been searching the wreck all week for bodies, with Hannah Lynch's being the last to be recovered on Friday. The other five dead passengers were found on Wednesday and Thursday, and the body of one of the dead crew members, chef Recaldo Thomas, was found on Monday.
Mike Lynch, 59, was one of the UK's best-known tech entrepreneurs and invited friends to join him on a boat to celebrate his acquittal in June in a US fraud case.
Among those who died in the accident are Lynch's lawyer, Chris Morvillo, and Jonathan Bloomer, who worked at the Morgan Stanley bank and appeared as a witness in his case.
