Martha Nolan-O’Slatarra’s family launches tipline seeking answers in Montauk yacht death

The estate’s attorneys ask anyone with information about the night she died to come forward — as newly obtained EMT records raise new questions about the scene

The family of Martha Nolan-O’Slatarra launched a public tipline on Thursday seeking witnesses and new information about the Irish fashion designer’s death aboard a Montauk yacht one year ago, her estate’s attorneys announced.

Brithem LLP, the firm representing Nolan-O’Slatarra’s estate, set up the site marthatipline.com to collect information about what happened aboard the “Ripple” vessel at the Star Island Yacht Club overnight on Aug. 4 and 5, 2025.

Attorney Michael Bowe, the firm’s founding partner, said the family has waited more than a year for answers and is asking anyone who saw, heard or knows something about Nolan-O’Slatarra, boat owner Christopher Durnan, or the events that night to come forward.

Responders noted dried blood in her mouth and on her chest and the back of her head, along with blood on the floor nearby; one medic reported the blood appeared to originate from the back of her head when her airway was repositioned during resuscitation, according the news report. The EMTs paperwork noted no active bleeding, no obvious source of trauma and no vomit at the scene.

EMTs also documented the presence of an unidentified man at the scene who told responders he had been in bed with Nolan-O’Slatarra and called 911 when he could not wake her. Durnan has previously been identified as the person who ran down the yacht club dock seeking help and has been described by his attorneys as the last person confirmed to have seen her alive.

None of the medical findings have been characterized by authorities as evidence of a specific cause of death, which the Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s Office has not publicly announced. Durnan has not been criminally charged in connection with Nolan-O’Slatarra’s death.

Yearlong search for answers

Nolan-O’Slatarra, 33, moved Carlow, Ireland, to Manhattan in 2016 and later became the founder of the resort and swimwear label East x East. In Montauk that summer for her pop-up store at Gurney’s Resort, she was found unresponsive aboard the “Ripple,” just after midnight on Aug. 5, 2025.

She was pronounced dead at the scene. Suffolk County Police said in the days after her death that a preliminary autopsy showed no evidence of violence, though homicide detectives were assigned to investigate and the county’s East End Drug Task Force separately opened its own review.

_{Top: Martha Nolan-O’Slatarra (Instagram) and Montauk Yacht Club dock (Brian Harmon photo).}