The “devastated” mentor of the posh Manhattan jeweler who vanished when the Bayesian yacht sank off Sicily spoke along with her protége days earlier than the tragedy — and admitted she has little hope that the lacking passengers might be discovered alive.
In an unique interview with The Publish, goldsmith Cecelia Bauer recalled inviting Neda Morvillo to a luncheon with fellow jewelers on Monday, the identical day the superyacht capsized off the coast of Palermo.
Morvillo, who has a superb jewellery enterprise in Midtown, and her lawyer husband Christopher Morvillo are among the many six individuals who went lacking throughout the tragedy.
However officers are holding out hope they could be trapped within the ship alive, surviving on air pockets 160 ft under the floor.
“I’m completely shocked,” Bauer stated upon studying her former scholar and Morvillo’s husband have been aboard the doomed yacht.
“I’m devastated as a result of I can’t consider she’s one of many lacking. It doesn’t look good … I might discover it exhausting to consider that anybody has survived this lengthy.”
Bauer instructed The Publish she skilled the lacking jeweler roughly 20 years in the past.
An internet site for Morvillo — who goes professionally as Neda Nassiri — credit Bauer as her mentor.
“She was a scholar of mine,” Bauer stated. “She got here to my studio and he or she studied with me for a lot of, a few years, and he or she was in a position to exit on her personal, and get her personal studio and a spot to work.
“She grew to become a really shut buddy. She’s very expensive to me. And this information is simply completely devastating.”
Morvillo declined Bauer’s lunch invitation over the weekend however didn’t supply a purpose why.
“She stated that she wasn’t going to have the ability to come,” Bauer defined, including that she had “no thought” Morvillo had been crusing the Mediterranean Sea on a superyacht.
Bauer described Morvillo as “very upbeat, very blissful,” and “extremely good.”
“She was glad to assist anyone out that she may,” Bauer stated. “She was extraordinarily beneficiant…She was very particular.”
Bauer defined that she met Christopher Morvillo solely on a number of events, however acknowledged him as a “very nice fella” who was “very nicely related.”
Christopher Morvillo was the couple’s ticket onto the yacht as they have been celebrating British tech tycoon Mike Lynch‘s win in his longstanding fraud trial earlier this summer season.
Lynch, the proprietor of the yacht, and his 18-year-old daughter are additionally misplaced at sea.
“It’s all simply fairly horrible,” Bauer added. “I don’t even know what to say, it’s so horrible. I can’t think about what her household [is going through],” the grieving goldsmith stated.
Neda and her husband have two daughters, Sabrina and Sophie, who have been resulting from fly out to Italy and spend time on the posh boat earlier than it sank.
“He was so excited in regards to the journey,” fellow legal professional David Oscar Markus wrote in a weblog put up after discovering the couple was lacking.
“He couldn’t watch for his daughters to fulfill up with him and his spouse. I’m so grateful the ladies had not but arrived when this tragedy struck.”
Christopher Morvillo’s mom has holed up in her Lengthy Island residence eagerly awaiting developments, in keeping with neighbors.
“Cathy is distraught, she is holding out hope they’re nonetheless alive,” a neighbor instructed DailyMail.com Tuesday.
“It’s heartbreaking. We’re ready with bated breath,’ the individual stated. ‘It’s an exquisite household and we’re all grieving together with them. His mom nonetheless has hope that there’s some likelihood her son and daughter-in-law are alive.”
Italian divers have been exploring the sunken Bayesian late Tuesday after utilizing jacks to smash the 1¹/₄-inch-thick glass, in keeping with native stories.
They reached the widespread areas of the 184-foot luxurious vessel, however haven’t but made it to the cabins — the place one skilled theorized the lacking passengers is likely to be trapped, however alive.
The search and rescue mission may take hours. Due to the depth, divers can solely keep underwater for 12 minutes at a time.
The Bayesian capsized with 22 folks — 10 crew members and 12 passengers — after it was all of the sudden struck by a freak storm round dawn Monday morning, officers stated.
Fifteen folks managed to flee earlier than the superyacht went down.
The ship’s Canadian-born chef Thomas Recaldo marks the one confirmed loss of life within the tragedy.
Along with the Morvillos and Lynch and his daughter, Morgan Stanley Worldwide chairman Jonathan Bloomer advert his spouse, Judy, are nonetheless unaccounted for.
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