4 Bodies Recovered from Sunken Yacht in Sicily Where 6 Were Missing, Source Says, but Identities Unclear

Mar. 15, 2025

PERINI NAVI PRESS OFFICE/HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Four bodies have been recovered fromthe yacht that sank off the coast of Sicily this week, a person involved in the search and rescue operation confirms to PEOPLE.

Their identities were not immediately clear.

Six passengers had remained missing after theBayesianwent into the water early on Monday, Aug. 19, following a storm.

The missing were identified asMike Lynch, a British tech entrepreneur, andhis daughter Hannah, as well as Chairman of Morgan Stanley InternationalJonathan Bloomer, his wife, Judy, and New York City-based lawyerChristopher Morvilloand his wife, Neda.

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At the time there were 22 people on board, including 12 passengers and 10 crew, per the coast guard.

In the aftermath of the sinking, 15 people were soon rescued, according to the coast guard, while a body was also retrieved near the vessel andlater identified in news reportsas the chef, Ricardo Thomas.

Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, is one of the individuals who was rescued, PEOPLE previously reported.

Mike Lynch.Dan Kitwood/Getty

Dan Kitwood/Getty

A source close to the survivors told PEOPLE that the passengers were celebrating after Lynch was acquitted in June in a financial fraud trial in the U.S.

“That’s why he took his closest friends and colleagues on the trip,” the source said.

Morvillohad represented Lynchin the fraud case and other firm employees were on theBayesianas well, a spokesperson for Clifford Chance, his law firm, said in a statement.

Lynch later told Britain’sSunday Timesin a July 27 story that he would’ve died while serving his prison sentence due to his age and lung infection had he been convicted.

“I have various medical things that would have made it difficult to survive,” Lynch, a father of two children — Hannah, 18, and another daughter, 21 — told the paper.

After reports of the tech entrepreneur’s disappearance, Danny Fortson, who interviewed Lynch for theSunday Timesstory, said he was “reeling.”

“The terrible irony is that when we sat down last month, he made it clear that he felt he had won a new lease on life, that his acquittal in America gave him a “second life,’ ” Fortsonwrotein a social media post.

Witnesses said theBayesianwas anchored in front of the Porticello port when the storm struck in the early morning hours on Monday, per Italian newspaperGiornale di Sicilia.

“That boat was all lit up,” a man told the newspaper.

“At about 4:30 in the morning it was gone,” the man said. “A beautiful boat where there had been a party. A normal day of vacation spent happily at sea turned into a tragedy.”

source: people.com