Hamptons Mystery: Irish Entrepreneur Found Dead At Montauk Yacht Club

Six days after a woman was found unresponsive inside a Hamptons yacht, investigators are still working to determine how and why she died. It’s an incident that’s roiled the tony summer getaway area, where crime is low (but certainly not nonexistent), especially as the deceased, 33-year-old Martha Nolan-O’Slatarra, was familiar to many as the owner of a pop-up boutique just steps from a high-traffic luxury hotel.

According to the Suffolk County Police Department, a 911 call placed around midnight Tuesday reported that a woman had fallen unconscious on a yacht moored at the 200-slip marina of the Montauk Yacht Club, a 16-acre Hamptons resort that’s served area residents (barring breaks for renovations) since 1928.

The male caller, who has not been publicly identified, told dispatchers that “good Samaritans” had performed CPR on the woman—who was later identified as Nolan-O’Slatarra—to no avail. First responders pronounced her dead at the scene.

A preliminary homicide investigation and exam was “inconclusive regarding the cause of death,” police say. According to the Suffolk County Office of the Medical Examiner, an autopsy on Nolan-O’Slatarra’s remains performed later in the week “did not show evidence of violence.” Her final cause of death remains unknown, “pending further examination.”

It’s unclear who owns the yacht Nolan-O’Slatarra died on, which CBS reports was a 50-to-60-foot vessel docked off Star Island Road. When contacted with a request for additional details, a spokesperson for the Montauk Yacht Club provided a written statement that reads: “We are saddened to learn of the tragic incident that took place. Our team is cooperating with law enforcement in their ongoing investigation and remains committed to the safety and well-being of our guests and staff. We have no further comment at this time.”

While the Hamptons have their own unique set of problems, unexplained deaths are exceedingly rare. The 2001 slaying of financier Ted Ammon is enough of an outlier that it remains a topic of discussion today; a more common true crime tale for the region might be allegations of financial impropriety at a wealthy denizen’s day job.

That’s why Nolan-O’Slatarra case has attracted so much attention—that, and her visibility as the owner of a summertime pop-up shop at Gurney’s Montauk Resort and Seawater Spa, which began in 1926 as a quaint, 20-room hotel but has evolved into a massive spa and hospitality complex. (In fact, Gurney’s also owned the Montauk Yacht Club from 2018 until 2022, when it was sold to boating network Safe Harbor Marinas for $149.4 million.)

Born in the Irish town of Carlow, Nolan-O’Slatarra moved to New York about ten years ago, reports the Irish Independent. The Manhattan resident had filed for divorce from husband Sam Ryan earlier this year, according to Irish newspaper Sunday World, and was currently in a relationship with another man, the Independent reports, “who is understood not to have been on the boat with her” at the time of her death. According to the paper, she’d messaged him earlier in the evening to say that she’d Uber home by 1 a.m. “She had told him she was meeting someone in connection with her business,” Sunday World writes.

That makes the circumstances detailed by the longstanding local news outlet 27east all the more perplexing. According to the publication, witnesses at the marina say a naked man running down the dock shouting, “do something, do something,” preceded the 911 call Tuesday. The man, whom the outlet reports owns two vessels currently docked at the marina, reportedly even threw a tube of sunscreen at a neighboring ship in an effort to rouse someone to help. (Suffolk County police were not available to confirm those details as of publication time.)

In recent years, Nolan-O’Slatarra had launched a clothing and accessories company called East x East, which sold its wares online and—as of July—at an outdoor pop-up shop at Gurney’s, a post by Nolan-O’Slatarra on TikTok notes. “Goals Achieved,” Nolan-O’Slatarra captioned her announcement of the shop’s launch.

Via statement, Gurney’s says “We are deeply saddened by the tragic news regarding Martha Nolan and extend our sincere condolences to her family and loved ones. While Martha was not an employee of Gurney’s, we were proud to host her East x East pop-up and admired her entrepreneurial spirit and creative vision.”

According to The Irish Times, the boat Nolan-O’Slatarra died on, which is called Ripple, remains at the yacht club’s main dock. Meanwhile, Nolan-O’Slatarra’s remains are in Suffolk County custody, as final post-mortem testing—including toxicology and other reports—is completed. Final results from that analysis are expected to take at least three months.