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A New York City lawyer who went missing after a yacht sank off the coast of Sicily wrote a haunting post on LinkedIn two months before he joined the doomed voyage.
In one of his only posts on the site, Christopher Morvillo, 59, thanked his legal team after they helped British tech tycoon Mike Lynch win a fraud trial.
Lynch owned the luxury yacht Bayesian, which sank early on Monday. Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, Morvillo, Morvillo's wife Neda, British banker Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy are still missing. The remaining passengers have all been found. One person, the ship's chef, died in the storm.
Morvillo thanked his legal team and his family, and ended with a now poignant flourish.
“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," he wrote. “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….”
Morvillo is a partner at Clifford Chance, a white-collar law firm with offices on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. He previously worked as a federal prosecutor who investigated the September 11 terror attacks, according to the New York Post.
He and his legal team successfully defended Lynch from fraud allegations brought by Hewlett-Packard stemming from the tycoon's sale of his Autonomy company to HP for $11bn in 2011.
“This verdict closes the book on a relentless 13-year effort to pin HP’s well-documented ineptitude on Dr. Lynch. Thankfully, the truth has finally prevailed. We thank Dr. Lynch for his trust throughout this ordeal and hope that he can now return home to England to resume his life and continue innovating.” Morvillo and his co-counsel wrote in a press release after winning the case.
The 160-foot luxury sailboat was off the cost of Porticello, Italy — near Sicily — when it ran afoul of a small waterspout in the Mediterranean. The Bayesian likely capsized after its mast was broken by the storm, Salvatore Cocina, the head of Sicily's Civil Protection, told CNN.
Rescue divers continued their search for the missing on Tuesday. The ship's hull sank to a depth of 164 feet underwater. Officials believe people may still be trapped inside the ship. Rescue trips to the hull have been slow going as divers can only spend 12 minutes that deep before having to resurface, according to fire rescue officials.
The six passengers who are unaccounted for will be referred to as "missing" until they or their bodies are found, rescue officials said on Tuesday.
