Initial autopsies performed on four of the seven people who lost their lives in the sinking of a superyacht off the coast of Sicily indicate they didn't drown, at least not in the usual way. Chris and Neda Morvillo and Jonathan and Anne Bloomer had no water in their lungs, tracheas, or stomachs, a rep for the lawyer of the Bayesian's captain tells CNN. According to local media, the four victims may have found an air bubble inside the sunken yacht that allowed them to continue breathing—until all oxygen was used up, leaving only toxic carbon dioxide. At that point, they would have asphyxiated, the Guardian reports. The deaths have been varyingly described as "dry drowning," "atypical drowning," and "death by confinement."
However, "the results are still provisional, as histological exams on samples taken from the bodies will be needed to ascertain the cause of death," a source tells the Guardian. The four autopsies were carried out this week at a hospital in Palermo. Autopsies on British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, are scheduled for Friday. An autopsy on the yacht's chef, Recaldo Thomas, hasn't been scheduled "due to the difficulty reaching his family in Antigua," CNN reports. The autopsies will factor into a criminal investigation of captain James Cutfield, machine engineer Tim Parker Eaton, and sailor Matthew Griffith, who was said to have been on watch duty on the night of the sinking. (More Bayesian sinking stories.)
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