The 33-year-old, Irish-born fashion designer was cold to the touch and was covered in dried blood when she was found unconscious on a vessel docked at the Montauk Yacht Club on Aug. 5, 2025. Martha Nolan / Facebook
Hamptons fashion entrepreneur Martha Nolan-O’Slatarra was cold to the touch, turning purple, and with her mouth, chest and back of her head covered in blood when medics found her aboard a boat in Montauk, according to documents The Post obtained on the one-year anniversary of her death.
The Montauk Fire Department patient care record for the Irish-born 33-year-old founder of East x East also noted purpling on her lips and under her nailbeds as well as blood on the floor near her body.
The Ripple fast boat is seen docked at the Montauk Yacht Club on Thursday, August 7, 2025, where Martha Nolan-O’Slatarra was found cold to the touch despite the boat being “quite warm,” according to EMTs. Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Post
“Boat was quite warm but [patient] was cool to the touch with nail beds that were purple with slight purpling around lips,” a note from the EMT report read.
The body “had dried blood in oral, head and chest area. No active bleeding observed or obvious sources of trauma. First arriving EMT noted blood potentially from the back of head area when EMT positioned head to open airway and begin” resuscitation efforts and administer oxygen, the report said.
The report notes an “additional male” was on the scene at the time of the cardiac arrest. That person, not identified in the report, told EMTs that he was in bed with Nolan-O’Slatarra and called 911 when he was unable to wake her up, the report stated.
Boat owner Chris Durnan is the only person to have been previously confirmed as being on the scene and last seeing her alive.
He was reportedly spotted running for help down the Montauk Yacht Club dock completely nude at roughly midnight on Aug. 5, 2025. “Do something!” the naked man screamed, good Samaritans later told The Post.
Lawyers for Durnan told New York Magazine that he stripped down naked because he was soaked in Nolan-O’Slattara’s vomit. EMTs did not note any vomit in their report.
The EMT report noted Nolan-O’Slatarra was unresponsive the entire time they were on the scene.
An autopsy commissioned by Nolan-O’Slatarra’s family revealed that only trace amounts of cocaine were found in her system, according to the family’s lawyer. The Suffolk County Medical Examiner has not released autopsy results.
A crime scene expert who reviewed the report found the report’s details concerning.
Chris Durnan, 60, was the last person to see Nolan-O’Slatarra alive on his boat called Ripple. Obtained by the NY Post
“This thing stinks,” said Patrick Zirpoli, a private investigator and retired Pennsylvania State Police corporal with more than two decades of experience investigating crime scenes and homicides. “Just by virtue of [the report], that’s a problem case.”
Zirpoli, who is not connected to this case, told The Post the scene could have been staged “to make it seem like something else.”
“Something happened to have caused [bleeding from the mouth.] And I think she. . . is deceased well before the first responders first got there,” Zirpoli said.
Lawyers for Nolan-O’Slatarra’s County Carlow, Ireland, family have also claimed that Durnan staged the scene.
“Law enforcement informed the family they believed the scene had been cleaned before responders arrived,” Michael Bowe of Brithem LLP told The Post.
Nolan-O’Slatarra could have been dead for up to an hour before EMTs arrived, and she could have been the victim of an assault, Zirpoli theorized.
Family of Nolan-O’Slatarra filed a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit against Chris Durnan on Tuesday. @marthanolan / Instagram
“She should not be losing body temperature that quickly where she’s cold to the touch. For [EMTs] to recognize that — that’s cold,” he said.
The gumshoe cast doubt on the Suffolk County Police Department’s suggestion that Nolan-O’Slatarra died of a designer-drug overdose.
“I can’t see this being a drug overdose. There’s things that are indicative of a drug overdose like frothing of the mouth. It’s not going to cause bleeding in your mouth if you overdose on drugs,” said Zirpoli.
“There has to be some sort of assault or something.”
Nolan-O’Slattara’s family filed a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit in Manhattan Civil Court on Tuesday, alleging that Durnan caused Nolan-O’Slatarra’s death through assault, negligence, and gross negligence.
Lawyers for Durnan could not be reached for comment. The Suffolk County Police Department said, “the investigation is still continuing.”
