Friends of a prominent fashion designer found dead at a Montauk Yacht Club in August sent eerie messages in the hours before she resurfaced, according to New York Magazine.
Martha Nolan, an Irish immigrant who cofounded the label East x East with Dylan Grace, had been scheduled to meet outside investor Christopher Durnan on a Saturday in early August, the outlet reported. When Nolan couldn’t make the original time, she suggested moving the meeting to Monday, Aug. 4. (RELATED: Horde Of Burglary Suspects Pour Out Of Sedan In Scene Out Of Classic Comedy)
Grace was set to leave for Greece the day before, so Nolan ultimately met Durnan alone aboard his fishing vessel at the Montauk Yacht Club.
New York Magazine said the meeting was initially set for 4 p.m. but was pushed to 7:30 p.m. When hours passed with no response from Nolan, friends in a group chat grew anxious. Her location on the Find My app showed her phone as a lone dot drifting in the ocean.
Ten minutes later, Nolan finally texted back: “Lol I’m at the yacht club now, my phone is on.” She had already returned to the dock, the magazine said.
Friends of NYC designer Martha Nolan joked about her death in haunting texts hours before she was found dead on Montauk boat https://t.co/qy7Uf3rjRk pic.twitter.com/qfte1vVMnp
— New York Post (@nypost) November 14, 2025
The Suffolk County Police opened a homicide investigation after a woman was found dead aboard a docked boat in Montauk in the early morning of Aug. 5. First responders attempted life-saving measures on the unresponsive woman before she was transported to the hospital and pronounced dead.
Neither the woman’s identity nor her cause of death was disclosed at the time.
An investigation into Nolan’s death remained ongoing, Patch.com reported on Oct. 28. A cause of death was not revealed in October, but Suffolk County Police previously said an autopsy did not show any evidence of violence.