Friends of the Manhattan fashion designer found dead at the Montauk Yacht Club over the summer sent her a haunting text message joking that “maybe she’s dead” hours before her body was discovered
Martha Nolan-O’Slatarra, 33, was at the swanky yacht club on Long Island’s South Fork for a meeting with investor and boat owner Christopher Durnan to discuss the expansion of her swimwear fashion company East x East on August 4.
If you guys are looking for more money, let’s sit down and talk about it,” Durnan wrote in a text to Nolan-O’Slatarra and her business partner Dylan Grace, according to New York magazine.
The 33-year-old, who went by Martha Nolan professionally, was scheduled to meet with Durnan — who owns a 13% stake in the brand — at 4 p.m., but that was pushed back three hours.
Nolan and Durnan took a ride on one of his two vessels to watch the sunset and drink champagne while Grace skipped the meeting due to an overseas trip to Greece, according to the outlet.
During their trip out to sea, the fashion designer’s friends and boyfriend, Nicholas DiRubio, became concerned when she wasn’t answering any messages sent to her.
The panicked pals tracked Nolan’s location to somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean before listing possible reasons for her radio silence.
“lmao. I’m sure her phone died. Or maybe she’s dead,” read one message sent at 9:20 p.m.
Nolan was pronounced dead at the scene.
Officials found no signs of violence on her body, deepening the mystery of the grim discovery.
An official cause of death has not been released. Investigators suspect she died from an accidental overdose influenced by “designer drugs,” after a powdery white substance was found near her body on the moored vessel.
Cops still don’t definitively know if the powder discovered near the 33-year-old beauty was heroin, cocaine, fentanyl or a deadly cocktail of all three.
Police had been searching for the dealers in the area who may have sold the drugs believed to have killed Nolan.
These dealers] may or may not have known [they were selling] poison to this girl, but that doesn’t matter,” a source told The 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,” the source said.
Prosecutors could “seek manslaughter or [criminally negligent] homicide charges” against the drug peddlers, the same source said. “There’s a slew of possession and trafficking charges, and they could decide to get [federal authorities] involved, which would mean more time in prison if these bastards are convicted.”
The lack of details surrounding Nolan’s death is “frustrating” for her loved ones, family lawyer Arthur L. Aidala told The Post Friday, especially since they’ve not seen a full toxicology report or been given her final cause of death.
“But we know the effort is being made by the DA’s office to do what needs to be done to cross every ‘t’ and dot every ‘i’ to get to the bottom of this,” he added.
He also pushed back against speculation that the Irish designer overdosed, insisting that Nolan wasn’t known to do drugs.
“Something doesn’t make sense here,” Aidala charged. “But we’re hanging back and letting law enforcement do their job.”
Police have denied The Post’s legal request for public documents related to her autopsy and toxicology reports, claiming they are “restricted to specific entities.”
