An Irish woman who was mysteriously found dead on a yacht in the US had reportedly been battling brain cancer.
Martha Nolan-O’Slatarra, 33, was discovered on a boat named Ripple at Montauk Yacht Club, Long Island, when a man called 911 around midnight on August 5, the Suffolk County Police Department said.
Despite ‘good Samaritans’ trying to perform CPR, first responders pronounced her dead soon after they arrived.
Officers asked Martha’s mum Elma, who was in contact with her daughter daily, if the claims were true she had been battling brain cancer.
Elma was reportedly stunned, telling investigators her daughter was ‘perfectly healthy’.
It is not known who told the authorities Martha had brain cancer, according to the Irish Independent.
Her cause of death has still not been determined, but a post-mortem exam ‘did not show evidence of violence, and her final cause of death is pending further examination’, according to US detectives.
A preliminary investigation at the scene was also inconclusive.
Criminal defence attorney Arthur Aidala, whose client list includes Harvey Weinstein, has been fired by the family as they seek a second-opinion autopsy.
Mr Aidala said: ‘There is still a very intense investigation focused on why a young woman is dead.
‘The autopsy report did show that there were no signs of a struggle, no defensive wounds on her hands,andno obvious signs of trauma.
‘The medical examiner is really focusing now on her blood and the other fluids that are being sent to toxicology to see what’s going on.
‘There were rumours that she possibly had some form of brain cancer and that is being investigated as well.’
The designer, originally from Carlow around 50 miles south west of Dublin, was a regular member of the Montauk Yacht Club in the glitzy Hamptons area of New York.
Martha had moved to New York from Ireland when she was 26-years-old. She had spoken about wanting to start her own company and brand from the age of 18.
She founded East x East, a resort-wear label in the Hamptons in 2023 and had a successful pop-up in the exclusive Gurney’s spa, a 10-minute drive from the yacht club.
After opening the spa business she posted ‘Goals Achieved’ on TikTok on July 1, just weeks before her death.
Dylan Grace, her co-founder at East x East, said after her death: ‘We dreamed big together, laughed harder than anyone else could understand and built so much from nothing.
‘I’m truly blessed and grateful to have had you in my life.’
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