Chilling messages have surfaced, shedding light on the turmoil and uncertainty that ensued on the night a fashion designer was mysteriously discovered dead aboard a yacht in the Hamptons.

Martha Nolan had arranged a meeting with insurance magnate Christopher Durnan at the Montauk Yacht Club on August 5 to discuss her emerging fashion brand. The two then embarked on his fishing boat to sip champagne and enjoy the sunset.

“If you all are seeking additional funds, let’s discuss it,” Durnan reportedly said, as noted by New York Magazine.

After departing from the dock, Nolan became unreachable, prompting concern among her friends. They initially used the Find My app, which indicated her location was somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean.

One friend made an ominous joke, saying, “lmao. I’m sure her phone died. Or maybe she’s dead.”

However, approximately 10 minutes later, Nolan replied, “Lol I’m at the yacht club now, my phone is on.”

About an hour after her last text message, the joke turned into a tragic reality: Nolan was slumped over an unresponsive on her friend’s yacht. 

Nolan’s traveling companion, Durnan, was seen running down the dock nude, throwing sunscreen at a neighboring boat and calling for help. 

Authorities in Long Island are still investigating her tragic death but a clearer picture has emerged the aspiring businesswoman and her wealthy benefactor.  

Close friends of Martha Nolan, 33, sent her some chilling text messages the night of August 4, hours before she was found dead on a yacht in the Hamptons

She had met up with 60-year-old insurance mogul, Christopher Durnan (pictured) that night to discuss her label East x East

Durnan’s nudity had become a detail that many of Nolan’s friends fixated on following her untimely death.

‘I think for me it’s like, “Why is the man naked, right?”‘ one unidentified friend told New York Magazine. 

‘That’s the part where I’m like: “Did something happen to this girl?”‘

But Durnan’s lawyer, Robert Holdman, insisted his client was forced to take off his clothes after they became ‘soaked’ in the designer’s vomit.

Durnan and Nolan had been sitting on the deck of the Ripple in the dark discussing business when Nolan suddenly went limp at around 10.30 or 11pm, the lawyer claimed.

Durnan thought she may have been suffering a heart attack, and tried to perform CPR. But it was already too late.

‘She was gone almost immediately,’ Holdman insisted. ‘She was nonresponsive.’ 

Durnan did not call 911 but instead police got a call from a bystander around midnight.

That timeline seems to leave a gap of at least one hour between when Nolan lost consciousness and when Suffolk County police said they were called to the scene. 

Holdman insisted ‘It all happened immediately.’

Nolan reassured her friends that she was OK

Nolan’s body was found on Durnan’s yacht, the Ripple, early the next morning 

Durnan’s lawyer claimed he and Nolan’s had been sitting on the deck of the Ripple in the dark discussing business when the designer suddenly went limp at around 10.30 or 11pm 

‘She passed away and everything went down from there,’ the lawyer said. 

‘He went running to go look for help. He tried CPR- like it all happened one right after another. There was no pause.’

Holdman also noted that Durnan ‘doesn’t remember how long he did CPR’ and said his client is cooperating with authorities.

The only potential clue Durnan could give cops was that Nolan had dismissed herself two times that night to use the restroom.

‘It could be an indication of someone going to the bathroom, it could be an indication of someone doing drugs, or it could be both,’ the lawyer suggested. 

Holdman also explained that a powdery white substance pictured on the deck of the yacht was dust left from police fingerprinting the scene. 

‘Chris is distraught,’ the lawyer claimed. ‘He watched his friend die in trauma. He’s absolutely destroyed.’ 

He added that his client ‘really liked Martha and he wanted to help her succeed.’

‘He was hopeful and he liked her energy and liked the way she presented it to him.’ 

Nolan-O’Slaterra was living an enviable life in Manhattan’s Upper East Side prior to her death 

It wasn’t the first time that Durnan had a run-in with the law, however. 

He was arrested during a benefit concert at NYC’s Webster Hall on the 20th anniversary of September 11. He allegedly punched and bit a Ground Zero first responder.

Charging documents obtained by New York Magazine allege he bit the man on the ‘face, back and thumb, causing lacerations.’ An arresting officer claimed he found a plastic bag filled with cocaine in Durnan’s wallet.

Holdman, though, claimed his client was simply defending the honor of one of the band members’ wives and denied possessing the drugs.

Durnan wound up pleading guilty in that case to the lesser charge of disorderly conduct.

Meanwhile, Nolan was living an enviable life in Manhattan’s Upper East Side, posting TikToks of herself sipping champagne, taking private jets and trips on helicopters with her boyfriend, Nick DiRubio, whom she reportedly planned to marry.

She had finalized her uncontested divorce from ex-husband Sam Ryan in April, according to court documents filed in New York Supreme Court.

Ambitious from a young age, she studied commerce at University College Dublin before completing a master’s in digital marketing from the Smurfit Graduate School of Business.

‘Carlow is a small town, I was the small-town girl who needed to get out to achieve her big dreams,’ Martha said in an interview with the Irish Independent last year.

She had settled a divorce from her husband just months before her untimely death and was reportedly considering marrying her boyfriend, Nick DiRubio

‘I always knew I wanted to be successful, that I was money-driven, business-driven – and that fashion is a tough industry and it would be a slow road.’

She worked in Ireland until 2015 before moving to the US, where she founded several companies, including fashion accessories brand Duper and luxury swimwear label.

As police now continue to probe what may have happened to the fashion designer, they are searching for potential drug dealers, according to the New York Post. 

‘[These dealers] may or may not have known [they were selling] poison to this girl, but that doesn’t matter,’ a law enforcement source told the New York Post in August. 

‘With higher profile cases like this poor girl in Montauk, you’re going to see more and more of these dealers getting locked up.’ 

An initial post-mortem examination of Nolan body ‘did not show evidence of violence and her final cause of death is pending further investigation,’ Suffolk County police have said.

But her grief-stricken family of the fashion founder travelled from Ireland to the US to demand a second-opinion autopsy into her cause of death.

The final post-mortem report, which will include toxicological, histological and other testing, which will take at least three months to conclude. 

If the toxicology reports comes back positive for drug usage, the dealers could face manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide charges, police sources said. Federal authorities could also become involved.

Legislators have introduced ‘Chelsey’s Law,’ which would give prosecutors the ability to add on drug-induced manslaughter and homicide chargers onto dealers. The bill is currently in a state committee assembly and has not been passed into law. 

It is named after Chelsey Murray, a 31-year-old who died after using fentanyl-laced heroin in August 2022 on Long Island. Her dealer, Jaquan Casserly, was sentenced to 10 years for felony drug sale.