An Irish fashion designer who was found dead on a yacht in the Hamptons lived a jet-setting life of luxury with her glamorous pals.
Martha Nolan-O’Slatarra, 33, was discovered unconscious onboard a vessel named Ripple while it was docked at the Montauk Yacht Club around midnight Tuesday.
Good Samaritans attempted life saving measures, but East Hampton Town Police pronounced her dead at the scene. Her manner of death remains unclear and will be determined by the Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Irish-born Nolan-O’Slatarra, founder of fashion label East x East, created a ritzy lifestyle for herself that’s often associated with Manhattan’s elite.
The self-professed entrepreneur and brand growth consultant took rides on helicopters and private jets, videos posted on her TikTok account reveal.
She and her pals took a Falcon jet to Nashville for a concert in 2021 with Nolan-O’Slatarra highlighting her ‘#milehighclub’ and ‘#privatejet’ life in the captions.
Last October, she shared a video of herself and a male companion drinking bubbly as they flew over a sunny, rural looking area. She captioned the short clip: ‘Heli on up.’
Nolan-O’Slattara shared a TikTok clip of herself with the same man sitting in a luxurious convertible car as it drove through picturesque countryside.
Privately, Nolan-O’Slattara’s lifestyle was not all glitz and glamor.
In an interview with the Irish Independent last year, she claimed to ‘live in the Upper East Side’ which she said she ‘loved’ even though it was ‘expensive’.
But property records tie her to an address in Yorkville, which is often regarded as a less desirable and more inexpensive part of the the highly sought out UES neighborhood.
Nolan-O’Slatarra lived in a small studio apartment where her monthly rent was approximately $1,900, the records revealed.
She grew up in the small town of Carlow, Ireland, roughly 55 miles outside of capital city Dublin.
She left home at 16 after she ‘forced’ her parents to send her to the highly regarded Institute of Education in Dublin, a private secondary school where an education will set families back about $67,540 (€58,200).
‘I was the small town girl who needed to get out to achieve her big dreams,’ Nolan-O’Slatarra told the Irish Independent last year, highlighting how she was ‘money driven’, ‘business driven’ and ‘always knew I wanted to be successful’.
After secondary school, she attended University College Dublin where she studied the fundamentals of business as an undergraduate and later earned a master’s degree in digital marketing.
Once she completed her degrees, Nolan-O’Slatarra interviewed for graduate scheme positions at major companies, including Deloitte and Ernst & Young, but said she was told it would be nine months before she would be informed of a hiring decision.
The entrepreneur was looking for a ‘change’ in the interim and ended up in the US in 2015 after her dad bought her a one-way ticket to New York City, the newspaper reports.
Although she only intended to be in the city for nine months, Nolan-O’Slatarra got a job at fintech start-up Street Diligence, a company that worked with what she described as ‘top-tier hedge funds’.
She claimed the firm’s CEO offered to pursue visa sponsorship after she successfully landed investment bank Jefferies as a client.
She left Street Diligence after two years, bouncing around at multiple companies before starting her firm Brand Growth Consultants – which has an online presence that appears to be completely AI-generated – in 2021.
She launched several companies that same year, including her direct-to-consumer Amazon brand Duper and her resort wear line East x East, her LinkedIn page reveals.
East x East had a brand shoot in Mallorca, Spain in 2023. Just weeks ago, Nolan-O’Slatarra celebrated the grand opening of the brand’s popup shop at Gurney’s Montauk Resort and Seawater Spa.
‘Goals Achieved,’ she wrote on a video shared of the shack housing her bikinis and beach wear shared on TikTok on July 1 as she encouraged the public to come visit.
Nolan-O’Slatarra was also appointed director of operations at K4 Capital Management, an investment management firm, in June last year.
The designer was found dead on the Ripple yacht in the Hamptons Tuesday. Her death remains under investigation.
One boater at the scene described the ship as a ‘party boat’ and told Daily Mail she heard screams when the woman’s body was found.
Many in the wealthy enclave have now been left reeling as questions remain about what may have happened to the Manhattan resident, whom locals described to the New York Post as ‘well-known in the community’.
‘She was very friendly, always smiling,’ one local said. ‘There’s going to be a lot of conversation out of this.’
Indeed, another regular at the Yacht Club claimed Nolan-O’Slatarra’s boyfriend owns the boat – which is registered in Long Beach, New York – and told Daily Mail that whenever she saw the boat owner he would be ‘drunk and always messed up.’
As Nolan-O’Slattara fell unconscious Monday night, she said, the boat owner was seen running outside naked screaming ‘that’s my girlfriend’ as he tried to get help from other boaters.
‘We come here (to Montauk) every summer and nothing like this ever happens,’ the boater said. ‘The police have been here all day since four in the morning.’
As the investigation continued into the early hours of Wednesday, police officers were seen stopping guests at the Montauk Yacht Club – as the area was being cordoned off.
But many in the upscale enclave continued their day as normal, lounging by the pool or dining at one of the Yacht Club’s restaurants.
They did not seem to have a care in the world, even as police officers and detectives in suits gathered on the dock.
Violent crimes are unusual in the upscale Long Island beach and resort area that is known for its monstrous mansions and high-end dining.
Influencers and celebrities often flock to the area, especially in the summer months.
The Montauk Yacht club offers those beach-goers luxurious accommodations, including spa services, a pool, beach, harbor cruises, biking and yoga.
Rooms at the famed club run for about $1,500 in the summertime and around $865 during other months.
Celebrity makeup artist Patrick Ta even hosted an event there this past weekend that included a star studded guest list, including influencers Alix Earle and Remi Bader.
Photos showed the glamourous influencers looking sun-kissed as they enjoyed cocktails and food at the yacht club.
They were also seen overlooking the breathtaking marina which has now become a crime scene.
There is no indication that the events hosted at the club this weekend are connected to the discovery on Tuesday morning.