British tech tycoon Mike Lynch died of suffocation after running out of oxygen, an investigative source has revealed.
Reuters has reported the verdict came after initial examinations carried out on Saturday on Mr Lynch’s body, which was recovered from the family yacht that sank off Sicily's coast last month.
Mr 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.
The examinations succeeded only in 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 56m 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.
Further forensic tests have been ordered all the victims, with results expected in the coming weeks, the source said.
The sinking has puzzled naval experts, who said a vessel like the Bayesian, built by high-end yacht manufacturer Perini, which is owned by The Italian Sea Group, should have withstood the storm and not have sunk as quickly as it did.
Born in Ilford, Mr Lynch founded software giant Autonomy in 1996, which he went on to sell to US firm Hewlett Packard (HP) in 2011 for $11bn (£8.64bn).
The news of Mr Lynch’s demise led to an outpouring of grief in the tech community.
David Tabizel, who co-founded software giant Autonomy with him in 1996, described him as “a giant of a man”.
He tweeted: “It looks like we’ve lost our dear Dr Mike Lynch. RIP. The world has lost a genius. His family have lost a giant of a man.”
