A prominent New York lawyer, who has been missing since the Bayesian yacht sank off the coast of Italy on Monday morning, had ominously mentioned his family living “happily ever after” in one of his last social media posts.
Christopher Morvillo, a lawyer who helped British tech mogul Mike Lynch—owner of the capsized luxury yacht—in winning his fraud trial, thanked the legal team that contributed to their success in his penultimate LinkedIn post before the tragic incident. Morvillo and his wife Neda are among the six people who took a fatal trip with Lynch to celebrate his success. However, the couple is now feared dead, along with others.
Chilling Final Text
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At the end of the eerie post, Morvillo wrote: “And, finally, a huge thank you to my patient and incredible wife, Neda Morvillo, and my two strong, brilliant, and beautiful daughters, Sabrina Morvillo and Sophia Morvillo.”
“None of this would have been possible without your love and support. I am so glad to be home. And they all lived happily ever after….”
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Christopher is a partner at the esteemed Clifford Chance law firm, which has offices globally. He previously worked as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1999 to 2005.
Neda, 57, operates her own luxury jewelry brand under her maiden name, Neda Nassiri.
The couple owns an apartment on New York’s Upper East Side, as well as a luxurious four-bedroom, five-bathroom home valued at $2.3 million in South Kent, Connecticut.
They have two daughters: 27-year-old Sabrina, a voice actress, and 23-year-old Sophia, who studied in the prestigious theater program at Northwestern University.
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Also missing are Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah.
Lynch had invited guests aboard the luxury yacht to celebrate his recent success in a fraud trial. Among those on board were lawyers from Clifford Chance, including Christopher Morvillo, as well as colleagues from his company, Invoke Capital.
Jonathan Bloomer, the London-based chairman of Morgan Stanley International, and his wife are still unaccounted for and are feared dead.
The ship’s Canadian-born chef, Thomas Recaldo, lost his life in the sinking.
All Missing Feared Dead
The tragedy occurred when the 180-foot superyacht was struck by a waterspout, causing it to be destroyed and sink. Fifteen people were rescued from the yacht, including Mike Lynch’s 57-year-old wife, Angela Becares.
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She recalled that the first sign of trouble came when the Bayesian developed a “slight tilt” around 4 a.m. on Monday morning, which woke her up.
Becares and others are now anxiously waiting for news of their missing loved ones, while the search and rescue operation continues. Some of those missing are feared to have been asleep when the waterspout hit, reducing their chances of escaping the sinking vessel.
Among the survivors is a 15-month-old baby girl named Sofia, who was kept afloat in the water by her mother, 36-year-old Charlotte Golunski.
Golunski, who works with Lynch at Invoke, shared her experience with the Italian newspaper Repubblica.
“I held her afloat with all my strength, my arms stretched upwards to keep her from drowning.
“It was all dark. In the water I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I screamed for help but all I could hear around me was the screams of others.”
Golunski’s husband, 36-year-old James Emsilie, also survived, along with Clifford Chance lawyer Ayla Ronald, 36.
Other survivors included 29-year-old Irish woman Sasha Murray, 41-year-old Matthew Fletcher from London, 51-year-old James Calfield from New Zealand, 39-year-old Myin Htun Kyaw from Myanmar, and the French captain, Matthew Griffith.
