Yacht death Briton ‘fell down stairs after party’
‘Hit her head or neck hard’
A BriTiSH woman working on a £6million superyacht was found dead hours after a drinking session to celebrate England’s World cup win.
The body of rebecca Boyle was discovered in her cabin on the vessel at the italian riviera port of imperia.
it is thought the stewardess slipped and broke her neck as she returned to her narrow split-level quarters in the early hours. The alarm was raised by colleagues when she did not show for breakfast.
Yesterday italian police revealed that her body was found next to her suitcases and suggested she may have been getting her luggage out ‘to rearrange items’ when she fell the five steps separating her bed from the rest of the cabin.
However, officers are still treating the death as unexplained and have yet to rule out that another party was involved. The tragedy happened on Wednesday just days after Miss Boyle, from Ladbroke Grove, west London, joined the crew of the superyacht La Polonia.
Just hours before the 32-year-old had been out drinking with crewmates after England’s World cup victory against colombia.
Local reports suggested she later got into the hot tub aboard La Polonia before returning to her cabin ‘the worse for wear’.
imperia police chief Pier Enrico Burri said: ‘The cause of death is still unknown but it seems as though she may have stumbled or slipped inside her cabin and hit her head or neck hard, breaking her vertebrae.
‘Her suitcases were on the floor as though she were rearranging things. She may have hit her head on the door of the cabin or while getting her suitcase down. These cabins are very constrained. There was no blood and no traces of violence or other people. The autopsy has to be done still but it looks like an accident.’
Miss Boyle was hired by a Monaco crewing company as chief steward- ess on the La Polonia. The 150ft vessel, which has a seven-strong crew and can accommodate ten guests, costs £150,000 a week to charter. it is thought that only five staff were aboard at the time of her death and were asleep.
Matteo Andracco, a lawyer representing a Malta-based firm that owns the boat, said: ‘it seems that after the England match she went for a few drinks in town and met up with the crew of another boat, the Dynamic, which was moored next to their boat. The chief engineer heard her alarm clock go off about 6.30am. After a few minutes when she didn’t turn it off he went in and saw she was not moving... it seems likely she fell down the five or six steps between the levels.’
Police said they cannot determine if alcohol played a part in her death until a post mortem examination has been carried out.
Yesterday her mother Laura, who is a renowned psychic and even has her own YouTube channel, appeared to be too upset to speak about her daughter’s death. The 57-year-old is a psychic consultant and a director of a hypnosis clinic.