Autopsy suggests tycoon Mike Lynch likely died of suffocation in yacht

PALERMO, Italy — British tech tycoon Mike Lynch died of suffocation after running out of oxygen, an investigative source said, citing initial examinations carried out on Saturday after his body was recovered from the family yacht that sank off Sicily’s coast last month.

Lynch, his daughter Hannah, 18, an onboard cook and four guests died when the British-flagged superyacht Bayesian sank during a severe and sudden weather event off the port of Porticello, near Palermo, on August 19. Initial results on Hannah Lynch’s body, whose examinations were carried out on Saturday, were inconclusive, the source told Reuters, only ruling out any traumas or wounds as the cause of death and leaving open the possibilities she either ran out of oxygen or drowned.

The bodies of the dead, except for the cook, were found in cabins on the left-hand side of the 56-metre (184-feet) vessel, where the trapped passengers may have tried to search for remaining bubbles of air, the head of Palermo’s Fire Brigade said last month.

Preliminary results from autopsies on four other victims – Morgan Stanley International Chairman Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judith, lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda – indicated suffocation as the likely cause of death, judicial sources said earlier this week. Fifteen people survived, including Lynch’s wife, whose company owned the Bayesian, and the yacht’s captain. Initial examinations of the Canadian-Antiguan onboard chef Recaldo Thomas indicated he died by drowning, the investigative source said on Saturday.