TRAGIC yacht victim Hannah Lynch's body was found alone in her own cabin, where she had been sleeping, it has been revealed.
Five others, including her father, tech magnate Mike Lynch, were found in a separate compartment on the Bayesian superyacht, as they tried in vain to escape the capsizing vessel, fire service commander Girolamo Bentivoglio Fiandra said last night.
It came as Italian prosecutors opened a manslaughter probe into the deaths of the seven victims of the sinking of a luxury yacht off the coast of Sicily.
Ambrogio Cartosio, prosecutor's office head in Termini Imerese, Palermo, said the investigation was so far not aimed at any individual.
He said: “We are only in the initial phase. At this stage, precisely because the investigation could develop in any way, we are absolutely not ruling anything out.”
Mr Cartosio added: “This tragedy would be even more heart-wrench-ing if our investigations were to prove that the sinking of the vessel was caused by actions not in accordance with the maritime code.”
Meanwhile, shocking details emerged yesterday suggesting that as the vessel sank – taking less than a minute to do so – those on board tried desperately to free themselves.
Bentivoglio Fiandra, the chief of Palermo's fire brigade, revealed “the bodies were found in the highest part of the ship, as it was clear people were trying to hide in cabins on the left-hand side”.
This indicates they had sought escape routes as the boat sank bow first, before capsizing on its right side during a sudden storm in the early hours of Monday morning.
Mr Lynch's 18-year-old daughter Hannah, who had just won a place to study English literature at Oxford University, was among those who died on the family's 184-foot boat the Bayesian.
It is believed to have been caught in a waterspout, a whirling column of air, off Porticello, Sicily.
The other victims were Morgan Stanley International chair Jonathan Bloomer, and his wife, Judy, as well as lawyer Chris Morvillo, his wife, Neda, and the yacht's chef, Recaldo Thomas. It is believed that they were asleep when the freak weather hit.
Fifteen people survived, including Mr Lynch's wife Angela Bacares, 57, whose company owned the Bayesian, and the yacht's captain.
Many had boarded a lifeboat and were rescued by a Dutch yacht that had been around 150 meters away.
The deaths have raised questions and spawned conspiracy theories. New Zealander James Cut eld, 51 – the captain – and other survivors have been quizzed as authorities look into whether or not portholes being left open sped up the sinking.
While the bad weather was “abnormal”, there was nothing to suggest an “extreme situation” was likely, said Rear Admiral Raffaele Macauda, maritime director for western Sicily.
He said that its captain could access warning systems so “one would have thought he would have taken precautions”.
Disaster struck just two days after the coincidental death of Mr Lynch's ex-colleague Stephen Chamberlain in a car crash.
Mr Lynch, 59, a British-born Irish tycoon, had taken the holiday with his family and defense team to celebrate being acquitted on long-running fraud charges in the US.
US tech giant Hewlett-Packard had accused Mr Lynch of artificially inflating profits of Autonomy, a software company it purchased for $11billion in 2011.
Mr Chamberlain, 52, was vice president at Autonomy and despite odds stacked in HP's favour, both men were acquitted in early June.