Italian prosecutors are reportedly investigating manslaughter charges in the catastrophic loss of the superyacht Bayesian after a final body, believed to be that of 18-year-old Hannah Lynch, was discovered in the debris, Cape {town} Etc reports.
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The Italian coastguard announced Thursday that it had uncovered the bodies of five persons, including the remains of British computer magnate Mike Lynch. At the time, only Mike’s daughter, Hannah, remained missing.
The Coast Guard reported that a recovery crew discovered a woman’s remains on Friday. The body has not been officially recognised, but an alleged Italian government source verified to the Washington Post that it was Hannah’s.
Photos showed Italian emergency workers bringing a plastic corpse bag ashore.
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‘The Lynch family is devastated, in shock and is being comforted and supported by family and friends,’ a spokesperson for the family said on Friday, in their first public comment since the yacht sank.
‘Their thoughts are with everyone affected by the tragedy. They would like to sincerely thank the Italian coastguard, emergency services and all those who helped in the rescue.’
The Prosecutor’s Office of Termini Imerese is looking into how the luxury vessel, which shipbuilders claimed was ‘unsinkable,’ went down.
UK radio network LBC reports that prosecutors are ‘investigating shipwreck and multiple counts of culpable manslaughter,’ though it’s unclear who prosecutors are looking to charge. A press conference is reportedly set up for Saturday.
The coast guard has questioned the captain of the Bayesian, James Cutfield, on behalf of prosecutors, as well as the other survivors. None of them have officially stated how the ship sank. So far, no one has been placed under formal investigation.
Mike and his family were aboard the Bayesian, a 56-metre British-flagged yacht, when it sank in a storm early Monday. The boat was moored about a kilometre off the Sicilian coast near Porticello. Officials suspect the ship sank after being struck by a waterspout, which is a tornado that erupts over water.
Mike had been celebrating his recent acquittal on fraud charges related to Hewlett-Packard’s US$11 billion acquisition of Autonomy, a business software corporation he founded.
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Some of the folks who had defended Mike in court were also celebrating on the boat.
A nearby sailboat saved 15 people from the shipwreck, including Mike’s wife, Angela Bacares. Recaldo Thomas, the yacht’s cook from Antigua, was discovered dead on Monday, immediately following the shipwreck.
Six others were declared missing, but six bodies have been discovered as of Friday. Search and rescue divers claim they struggled to locate the bodies stuck in the yacht’s hull.
‘It’s very difficult to move inside the wreckage. Moving just one meter can take up to 24 hours,’ said Luca Cari, spokesperson for the fire rescue service.
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Update: Fifth body recovered from yacht wreck, confirmed death toll now six