It’s been exactly one year since 33-year-old fashion designer Martha Nolan was found dead on a yacht in Montauk and there is still no official cause of death and no formal persons of interest named. Nolan’s family believes they know who is responsible for her death, and are planing to file a lawsuit with the details of their independent autopsy on Nolan’s body and the independent investigation into the man who was with her at the time of her death. Nolan’s family is filing a $50 million dollar civil lawsuit against Christopher Durnan, who was seen running naked on the docks throwing items at other boats to get help. There are a number of unanswered questions about that night: why was he naked, why didn’t he call 9-1-1 and why is there an extended period of time between when he claims Martha went limp and when he tried to get help.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, tho, folks. It is Thursday, August sixth, and it
has been a mystery in Montalk for a year. The
question though, was it a murder mystery? Was a young entrepreneur,
blonde haired, blue eyed? Was she murdered a board a
millionaire's yacht. Her family has now taken some legal action
(00:25):
and they certainly believe she was murdered. And with that,
welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. I cannot
believe Robes. It's been a year that Martha Nolan died
on a yacht in Montalk and we still don't have
an official cause of her death.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
That is absurd and to me just irresponsible. How is
it that it is either not known or it has
not been made public. I know it's not been made public.
The question is how much does the Medical Examiner's office
actually know? How how much do they not know? We
don't know, and it's crazy to think. Yes, August fifth,
(01:05):
twenty twenty five, that is when she was found dead
or reported dead, and we were in Montauk. So interestingly,
we have been very invested in this story because we
were there in this small coastal town at the tip
of Long Island when all of this happened, and it
was all anyone was talking about.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
And again, folks, you'll remember, and sure it did play
into it, Rhodes. I mean the headlines and you hear
that a young woman found dead mysterious circumstances on a
millionaire's yacht in a rich and famous playground in New York.
But it does factor. Let's be real here, Martha Nolan
was a thirty three year old woman. She looked a
(01:49):
certain way that helped with the tabloids and the headlines
and the reasons. She was gorgeous in a lot of reasons.
Long blonde hair, blue eyed, the type of person, of
the type of woman Robes that often gets a lot
of coverage in this country when it comes to either
being missing or murdered. That should just be said, that
did fuel a lot of this story. However, Robes, the
(02:10):
details of the story itself did rise to the level
and were worth covering. We don't have answer still to
how she died. We're hopping on now because her family
has officially taken some legal action Robes, and they are
going after and they are all going after and filing
a wrongful death suit, they say, against the man she
(02:32):
was with that night.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Yes, his name is Christopher Dernan. He's a wealthy individual
who lives there in Montauk, who was a big investor,
perhaps I believe, the biggest investor in her company. There
are reports he invested as much as two hundred thousand
dollars into her company and this was supposed to be
a business meeting. But yes, he was the person who
(02:54):
was with her that evening. He was the person where
we have talked about these crazy reports of how he
was found and it's very confusing and very frankly suspicious
in terms of the details surrounding her final few moments
and when other people were finally alerted that she in
(03:15):
fact wasn't conscious. There is so many void spaces that
we just can't fill in because no detective, no investigator,
no police report has been able to explain what happened
to this young woman.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
She died, folks. One other guy was with her that night,
and that is what we know. We do know. The
police said they didn't find any violence signs of violence
as a part of the autopsy. But other than that,
there has not been a toxicology report that's released that's
explaining what was in her system. There's been no explanation
for how this young lady might have died. So here
we are her family on what was pretty much the
(03:54):
one year anniversary, has filed. Notice a summons that you
can read online in which they are going after the
man she was with that night, Christopher Dernan, and the
purpose of the lawsuit they say at the very top
quote to recover damages for the wrongful death of Martha
Nolan the deceased, and to recover damages for the personal
(04:16):
injuries and conscious pain and suffering sustained by Martha Nolan
Pryor to her death robes. It goes on a little more,
but they are saying there was a physical confrontation of
some kind, something happened to where he caused her death robes.
They're calling him a murderer.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
They absolutely, they absolutely are. And the point being that
they had their own independent autopsy done so they have
their belief about what happened to their daughter. And I
remember one of the main points that they released when
they were speaking. They haven't spoken that much to the public,
but they said there were only trace amounts of cocaine
found in her system according to their independent audiome autopsies
(05:00):
certainly nothing that would indicate that that in any way
led to her death. That is what her family is
saying based on their independent autopsy.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Any investigate there has been nothing, nothing they have announced
or said, or anytime you try to get an update
they say we've got nothing or we're waiting. It's been
bizarre that this thing has just been sitting, which lends
itself to what is going on? Is something being covered up?
What was with the lack of transparency.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
You've been questioning it the entire time li since you
talked about how, yes, you've got this beautiful, blonde hair,
blue eyed woman who looks the part in terms of
just every news organization loves flashing her picture up because
she's just a gorgeous person. So I guess by default
we're supposed to care more about what happened to her.
But despite all of that, we don't know what happened
(05:48):
to her. And the other thing that we all point
to in the media and certainly people on the outside
looking in, is that, yes, the rich and powerful are
protected in this world. And so now you've got that
element of the story and that allegation out there that
a rich and powerful man is being somehow, in some
way protected. That's the insinuation.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Robes. It's Robes a year and when you call and
you ask them questions, they'll send you to another jurisdiction
or we still have nothing. Folks have been keeping up
and updating on this story for a long time. Robes.
This is high profile. The folks don't know. Look, you
hear Montalk, you hear Hampton's. How about that role? Yes,
(06:29):
people know what the Hamptons is, rich and famous playground.
If you drive through the Hamptons and keep driving until
you drive into the ocean, that's Montalk. They call it
the end. Yes, it's at the very end of New York.
It's the farthest tip east you can go. And as
Hampton's are, the Hampton's are known as a rich and
(06:50):
famous playground. Montalk can be that. But it's a surfer town.
It's a cool, casual, laid back fun spot. However, still
got money.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
There, lots of money, right.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
And so Martha Nolan was finding her way here. She
had a company, a leisurewear company, a resort wear company.
So this is the area we're talking about, Robes. So
if you have a woman frankly who looks like that
who is of that age running in those circles on
a yacht and just ends up dead. That crime needs
(07:24):
to be solved, Robes, And we were there when that
town was freaked out because nobody knew what happened exactly.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
And this is a late night business meeting on a yacht. Look,
there are so many questions, and I actually wanted to
read because you have some of the key points from
the family's lawsuit. This is very telling because they say
the causes of action arise from the wrongful conduct of
the defendant Christopher Dernan again that's the man who owned
the boat, who she was on the boat with on
(07:52):
or about August fourth and fifth, twenty twenty five, aboard
a vessel at the Star Island Yacht Club located in
on And then they say assault in that the defendant
intentionally and wrongfully assaulted the decedent, and gross negligence and
reckless and wanton conduct by the defendant toward the decedent,
(08:15):
each of which acts described in A and B above
individually and or in combination, caused the decedents injury and death.
They obviously have an autopsy that points to some sort
of an assault, some sort of injury that they plan
to present in court. Then why haven't police?
Speaker 1 (08:37):
I mean, it's possible they don't think they have enough evidence.
It's possible they don't think they can prove their case
beyond a reasonable doubt. But there is enough robes public
interest that you have to explain why you're not doing
it exactly.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
That's the point that is missing. I don't know. Look,
we've seen cases before where a police will say, we
have a person of interest, we have someone who we
believe might be responsible, but we can't prove it beyond
a reasonable doubt. So we're going to continue to collect evidence.
Just give us something or say because initially they did
say and they have said they've ruled out violence or
(09:13):
a violent death. That is not what this family is
asserting based on their findings and their independent investigation. They
I don't understand why police aren't at least giving us
some sort of indication about something.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
It seems like something is more important than this young
lady's life to them, and right this is let's be
straight here. It's even if you can't bring charges, you
there's an attitude of we want justice, transparency, we want
to know what happened to this woman. It's such a
shame what happened to her. In our jurisdiction, we need
answers for the family. There has been nothing in support
(09:49):
of the victim in this case. Now you can argue
that she's not a victim, then come out and argue.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Yeah, I think do you think that part of this
could be I'm sure part of the belief from probably
Martha o'nolan's family and or Martha nolan's family and other
folks is that they don't want to draw attention to this.
No one wants to talk about a murder in montok
That's not good for anyone. And so I don't know
if there's a feeling that they just don't want they
(10:16):
just want this to go away.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Okay, same problem. Okay, if that's if that's the justification,
same problem robes You get this is a young lady
who died and we don't know how and why. Well,
this is that's not right, that's not fair, that's not
advocating for the victim. If it's can be not mad
at you if you can't get a conviction. But this
is a like we don't care, we don't is the
signal that they're seting.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
That's how it appears, that's what it feels like.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
So the family now is an issue. This summons. Now
that's going to Christopher Dernhan and his attorneys, and they
will have thirty days to answer. If they don't answer
ropes in thirty days, fifty million dollar judgment against them,
just by default. So the family is going at this
point saying we want fifty million dollars in this case.
We don't know the extent of his wealth. He's been
(11:01):
referred to plenty of times as a millionaire. We know
he had at least a couple of boats, but he
is in his sixties at this point. I believe he
was sixty when this took place, so early sixties you
could still argue she was thirty three years old at
the time of her death. She had come to the
US in twenty fifteen and rote she was becoming, I suppose,
some kind of a mover and shaker around Montalk. But
this East by East is how it was described, was
(11:24):
the big deal. She had a pop up shop and
a pretty big resort there.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
The most prominent resort in all of Montak. Gurney's resort
and spa. I'm sure a lot of folks. You might
know that, but there are gurnees throughout I know specifically
here in the East Coast. They're a high end resort.
They had just opened her pop up a month before
her death, and so, yeah, this was a big deal.
This was a big deal for her to get this
(11:49):
space in this resort. And her company was doing gangbusters.
It was on its way, you know.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
And so she had been at this and working at
this for years and rights she was hustling, she was grinding,
she was doing herything on social media. She was there
to be seen. But on this night, and again, we
just happened to be spending our time in mom talk
at the time when all this happened. We get up
one day we hear about a woman found dead on
a yacht at a yacht club that's right up the street,
(12:20):
for like a mile from us, right, So we get
this news, and so the initial story that came out
robes it immediately did make a whole lot of sense.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
It did not, no, not at all, because she's found
unresponsive on a yacht. They claimed there was no evidence
of violence. The cause of death is undetermined. But yet
we're hearing all of these details from folks who were
there in the marina. Apparently she met with him around
seven thirty. She told friends she was going on a
business meeting. Folks saw her going out cruising around in
(12:53):
one boat, correct Helena Bucket, and then switching over to
his other boat, the Ripple, which was docked there. The
next thing people report is this man, Christopher Dernan, running
naked down the dock, throwing items at boats, sunscreen and boats,
finding banging to try and get help. Why he didn't
(13:15):
call nine one one, Why he was naked? What the hell?
Why did he need other people to get help? It
sounded like he was out of his mind? And why
was he naked?
Speaker 1 (13:27):
He claims, Okay, you just robes explained every single As
soon as you hear this story, your first questions are
why is he naked?
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Right?
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Why didn't he call nine one one?
Speaker 2 (13:39):
What?
Speaker 1 (13:39):
We had all those questions initially, we didn't get some
kind of answers and filling in the blanks until we
heard from Dernan through his attorney later. Stay here, We're
going to explain his side of the story, including why
he was buck ass naked that night.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Stay here, Welcome back everyone to Amy and TJ on
this day after the year anniversary of Martha Nolan's death,
or at least the announcement of her death, and to
(14:20):
mark the anniversary, her family has filed a fifty million
dollar lawsuit to get against the man she was last
seen with, against the man they believe is responsible for
their daughter's death. We told you before the break about
all the mystery and bizarre behavior surrounding her death and
Christopher Derlan's behavior and activities. But we did finally get
(14:45):
to hear I guess it was a short while later
from his attorney about why those bizarre series events took place.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
It does this make any sense to you? He claims, Now,
so what we the story we just heard right that
they are going out on one boat came back, so
he claims they get on that second boat of his,
this one's called the Ripple, and they're actually sitting on
the dock having drinks for about an hour, and at
that point, coding to his attorney, she quote went limp.
He also said, out of nowhere went limp his words,
(15:16):
She was gone immediately. Now this was around ten thirty
to eleven, is what they put it. They said that
Derlin did give her CPR. Now ropes. If all this
is going on, you're sitting, you're having drinks, she goes limp.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
You call nine one one, You give her CPR, You
call nine one one.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
How do you end up naked running through the dock
trying to wake everybody up to give you help. You
just left the woman who needs desperate medical attention. They claim, Robe,
did you buy this He was naked because he took
all of his clothes off because she had vomited on him.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
No, that's not what you're worried about. You're not thinking, Wow,
let me take these clothes off that have vomit on
them so that I can be naked running around trying
to get help. That makes zero sense. Number one. Number two,
according to her family, there is no evidence from the police,
or from the autopsy, or for any reports that there
was vomit anywhere. There was no evidence of vomit being
(16:18):
a part of any of this, so that where those
doesn't make sense. Yes, it seems like that would be
verifiable that he would have vomit stained clothing, or there
would be vomit on the deck of the boat. There
would be something. The family also has made allegations that
police told them that the boat was cleaned up. So
there are lots of things that seem extremely suspicious about
(16:39):
what happened. And where was this period of time between
ten thirty and eleven and he was banging and running
around closer to midnight? So where what was happening in
that forty five minutes between when he actually claims she
went limp and he is known to have been trying
to get help.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Those are the most suspicious things. And again he has
not been accused by police. Have been you wrongdoing? His
attorney said absolutely, he didn't do anything wrong to cause
harm to her. That should be said Robes. But given
we have a case here where we're not getting answers
from the police, and you have a case and details
of it robes that simply do not make sense. And
(17:15):
the key, Robes is that hour you're talking about you're
talking about it It was possibly as early as ten
thirty according to him, that she went limp. Nine one
one's not called until midnight.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
That makes no sense, also, Ropes.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Even if it was eleven eleven fifteen when she went limp,
why is nine to one one not called until the robes?
That's tough and okay, you get vomit all over here.
We've had anybody's had issues before.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
You smell it. You can't get that smell away.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
What a man. The first thing you do is just
strip your shirt off, you throw it at You're not
taking off your pants and you underwear because I got
vomit on them. It's just that doesn't make sense. Maybe
he was drunk, maybe all kinds of things and he
wasn't thinking clearly, but robes, those are just things that.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Don't make sense exactly. And she also, by the way,
had been texting with her friends. There was a period
where she wasn't because she was out on that boat,
and her friends in this group chat were even teasing
maybe her phone's dead, maybe she's dead, ha ha ha.
She writes back about an hour later, like I'm not dead,
still here, And she texts her boyfriend that she's calling
an uber, that she's leaving, and then when she doesn't
(18:29):
show up, obviously he gets worried. So, yes, she is
in a relationship with a man who, according to her family,
she brought home and she wanted to marry. She was
in the middle of getting a divorce wrapped up and finalized,
and she had a new man and look, there are
a lot of folks who could think there are plenty
of things that went on or went down on that
(18:51):
boat that led to some sort of altercation which eventually
led to her death. And certainly that is what her
family is asserting.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Hey, look we the other thing and that she this
because it came from the attorney, you remember, the so
bizarre what the actual hell He made a suggestion that
they were in a relationship and then had to walk
it back that it just.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Doesn't because her friends and her boyfriend and her family
all vehemently denied that there was anything romantic going on
between Martha Nolan and this sixty something year old investor,
and he then, when they were questioned about it, because
he was even the attorney for Dernham, was actually implying
that somehow even he had met her family, and her
(19:33):
family flat out said absolutely not. We don't know who
this person is. We've never met him. And that is
when he had to walk back, well, maybe they weren't.
And then he kind of said, and this was really
unfair to Martha Nolan. Out of respect for her, I
don't want to say anything further. That was really really shitty.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Yeah, I was appreciating so shitty.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
I remember that and thought, man, if I were her friend,
if I were her boyfriend, if I were her family member,
that would have made me so angry because the impla
cation was that it was some secret affair that was
going on between Martha Nolan and this sixty year old
man you put both of their pictures up. Seems unlikely,
but look that was the absolute insinuation.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
But to do that to a dead woman, to suggest
she was running around, for one, cheating on the guy
she was in a long term relationship with, and to
what's sleeping with this guy so she can.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Get money, it's a horrible thing to what they put
out there. Absolutely, that is absolutely what they implied. So look,
this family wants answers and they've been waiting long enough.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Doesn't this remind you, Robes? It's not quite but we
have to do have to mention Robes. This is a
different bar level of what you have to prove. You
don't have to get over the same reasonable doubt hump
that you do in criminal court to get a civil judgment.
It's possible they could present whatever evidence they have in
court and a jury looks at that and say, yeah,
(20:54):
we think is more likely than not that he is responsible.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
This could happen, yes, and maybe through the family of
Martha Nolan, their investigative process, their independent autopsy, we may
actually find out and get the best answer for what
happened to this thirty three year old woman in Montalk
a year ago. And that is I think all anybody
wants to know is what happened and if someone should
(21:19):
be held accountable. Will follow this, We have been following that,
We will continue to follow this story. We always appreciate
you listening to us. I maybe roboch alongside TJ. Holmes.
We'll talk soon.
Hey, tho, folks. It is Thursday, August sixth, and it
has been a mystery in Montalk for a year. The
question though, was it a murder mystery? Was a young entrepreneur,
blonde haired, blue eyed? Was she murdered a board a
millionaire's yacht. Her family has now taken some legal action
(00:25):
and they certainly believe she was murdered. And with that,
welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. I cannot
believe Robes. It's been a year that Martha Nolan died
on a yacht in Montalk and we still don't have
an official cause of her death.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
That is absurd and to me just irresponsible. How is
it that it is either not known or it has
not been made public. I know it's not been made public.
The question is how much does the Medical Examiner's office
actually know? How how much do they not know? We
don't know, and it's crazy to think. Yes, August fifth,
(01:05):
twenty twenty five, that is when she was found dead
or reported dead, and we were in Montauk. So interestingly,
we have been very invested in this story because we
were there in this small coastal town at the tip
of Long Island when all of this happened, and it
was all anyone was talking about.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
And again, folks, you'll remember, and sure it did play
into it, Rhodes. I mean the headlines and you hear
that a young woman found dead mysterious circumstances on a
millionaire's yacht in a rich and famous playground in New York.
But it does factor. Let's be real here, Martha Nolan
was a thirty three year old woman. She looked a
(01:49):
certain way that helped with the tabloids and the headlines
and the reasons. She was gorgeous in a lot of reasons.
Long blonde hair, blue eyed, the type of person, of
the type of woman Robes that often gets a lot
of coverage in this country when it comes to either
being missing or murdered. That should just be said, that
did fuel a lot of this story. However, Robes, the
(02:10):
details of the story itself did rise to the level
and were worth covering. We don't have answer still to
how she died. We're hopping on now because her family
has officially taken some legal action Robes, and they are
going after and they are all going after and filing
a wrongful death suit, they say, against the man she
(02:32):
was with that night.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Yes, his name is Christopher Dernan. He's a wealthy individual
who lives there in Montauk, who was a big investor,
perhaps I believe, the biggest investor in her company. There
are reports he invested as much as two hundred thousand
dollars into her company and this was supposed to be
a business meeting. But yes, he was the person who
(02:54):
was with her that evening. He was the person where
we have talked about these crazy reports of how he
was found and it's very confusing and very frankly suspicious
in terms of the details surrounding her final few moments
and when other people were finally alerted that she in
(03:15):
fact wasn't conscious. There is so many void spaces that
we just can't fill in because no detective, no investigator,
no police report has been able to explain what happened
to this young woman.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
She died, folks. One other guy was with her that night,
and that is what we know. We do know. The
police said they didn't find any violence signs of violence
as a part of the autopsy. But other than that,
there has not been a toxicology report that's released that's
explaining what was in her system. There's been no explanation
for how this young lady might have died. So here
we are her family on what was pretty much the
(03:54):
one year anniversary, has filed. Notice a summons that you
can read online in which they are going after the
man she was with that night, Christopher Dernan, and the
purpose of the lawsuit they say at the very top
quote to recover damages for the wrongful death of Martha
Nolan the deceased, and to recover damages for the personal
(04:16):
injuries and conscious pain and suffering sustained by Martha Nolan
Pryor to her death robes. It goes on a little more,
but they are saying there was a physical confrontation of
some kind, something happened to where he caused her death robes.
They're calling him a murderer.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
They absolutely, they absolutely are. And the point being that
they had their own independent autopsy done so they have
their belief about what happened to their daughter. And I
remember one of the main points that they released when
they were speaking. They haven't spoken that much to the public,
but they said there were only trace amounts of cocaine
found in her system according to their independent audiome autopsies
(05:00):
certainly nothing that would indicate that that in any way
led to her death. That is what her family is
saying based on their independent autopsy.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Any investigate there has been nothing, nothing they have announced
or said, or anytime you try to get an update
they say we've got nothing or we're waiting. It's been
bizarre that this thing has just been sitting, which lends
itself to what is going on? Is something being covered up?
What was with the lack of transparency.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
You've been questioning it the entire time li since you
talked about how, yes, you've got this beautiful, blonde hair,
blue eyed woman who looks the part in terms of
just every news organization loves flashing her picture up because
she's just a gorgeous person. So I guess by default
we're supposed to care more about what happened to her.
But despite all of that, we don't know what happened
(05:48):
to her. And the other thing that we all point
to in the media and certainly people on the outside
looking in, is that, yes, the rich and powerful are
protected in this world. And so now you've got that
element of the story and that allegation out there that
a rich and powerful man is being somehow, in some
way protected. That's the insinuation.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Robes. It's Robes a year and when you call and
you ask them questions, they'll send you to another jurisdiction
or we still have nothing. Folks have been keeping up
and updating on this story for a long time. Robes.
This is high profile. The folks don't know. Look, you
hear Montalk, you hear Hampton's. How about that role? Yes,
(06:29):
people know what the Hamptons is, rich and famous playground.
If you drive through the Hamptons and keep driving until
you drive into the ocean, that's Montalk. They call it
the end. Yes, it's at the very end of New York.
It's the farthest tip east you can go. And as
Hampton's are, the Hampton's are known as a rich and
(06:50):
famous playground. Montalk can be that. But it's a surfer town.
It's a cool, casual, laid back fun spot. However, still
got money.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
There, lots of money, right.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
And so Martha Nolan was finding her way here. She
had a company, a leisurewear company, a resort wear company.
So this is the area we're talking about, Robes. So
if you have a woman frankly who looks like that
who is of that age running in those circles on
a yacht and just ends up dead. That crime needs
(07:24):
to be solved, Robes, And we were there when that
town was freaked out because nobody knew what happened exactly.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
And this is a late night business meeting on a yacht. Look,
there are so many questions, and I actually wanted to
read because you have some of the key points from
the family's lawsuit. This is very telling because they say
the causes of action arise from the wrongful conduct of
the defendant Christopher Dernan again that's the man who owned
the boat, who she was on the boat with on
(07:52):
or about August fourth and fifth, twenty twenty five, aboard
a vessel at the Star Island Yacht Club located in
on And then they say assault in that the defendant
intentionally and wrongfully assaulted the decedent, and gross negligence and
reckless and wanton conduct by the defendant toward the decedent,
(08:15):
each of which acts described in A and B above
individually and or in combination, caused the decedents injury and death.
They obviously have an autopsy that points to some sort
of an assault, some sort of injury that they plan
to present in court. Then why haven't police?
Speaker 1 (08:37):
I mean, it's possible they don't think they have enough evidence.
It's possible they don't think they can prove their case
beyond a reasonable doubt. But there is enough robes public
interest that you have to explain why you're not doing
it exactly.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
That's the point that is missing. I don't know. Look,
we've seen cases before where a police will say, we
have a person of interest, we have someone who we
believe might be responsible, but we can't prove it beyond
a reasonable doubt. So we're going to continue to collect evidence.
Just give us something or say because initially they did
say and they have said they've ruled out violence or
(09:13):
a violent death. That is not what this family is
asserting based on their findings and their independent investigation. They
I don't understand why police aren't at least giving us
some sort of indication about something.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
It seems like something is more important than this young
lady's life to them, and right this is let's be
straight here. It's even if you can't bring charges, you
there's an attitude of we want justice, transparency, we want
to know what happened to this woman. It's such a
shame what happened to her. In our jurisdiction, we need
answers for the family. There has been nothing in support
(09:49):
of the victim in this case. Now you can argue
that she's not a victim, then come out and argue.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Yeah, I think do you think that part of this
could be I'm sure part of the belief from probably
Martha o'nolan's family and or Martha nolan's family and other
folks is that they don't want to draw attention to this.
No one wants to talk about a murder in montok
That's not good for anyone. And so I don't know
if there's a feeling that they just don't want they
(10:16):
just want this to go away.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Okay, same problem. Okay, if that's if that's the justification,
same problem robes You get this is a young lady
who died and we don't know how and why. Well,
this is that's not right, that's not fair, that's not
advocating for the victim. If it's can be not mad
at you if you can't get a conviction. But this
is a like we don't care, we don't is the
signal that they're seting.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
That's how it appears, that's what it feels like.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
So the family now is an issue. This summons. Now
that's going to Christopher Dernhan and his attorneys, and they
will have thirty days to answer. If they don't answer
ropes in thirty days, fifty million dollar judgment against them,
just by default. So the family is going at this
point saying we want fifty million dollars in this case.
We don't know the extent of his wealth. He's been
(11:01):
referred to plenty of times as a millionaire. We know
he had at least a couple of boats, but he
is in his sixties at this point. I believe he
was sixty when this took place, so early sixties you
could still argue she was thirty three years old at
the time of her death. She had come to the
US in twenty fifteen and rote she was becoming, I suppose,
some kind of a mover and shaker around Montalk. But
this East by East is how it was described, was
(11:24):
the big deal. She had a pop up shop and
a pretty big resort there.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
The most prominent resort in all of Montak. Gurney's resort
and spa. I'm sure a lot of folks. You might
know that, but there are gurnees throughout I know specifically
here in the East Coast. They're a high end resort.
They had just opened her pop up a month before
her death, and so, yeah, this was a big deal.
This was a big deal for her to get this
(11:49):
space in this resort. And her company was doing gangbusters.
It was on its way, you know.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
And so she had been at this and working at
this for years and rights she was hustling, she was grinding,
she was doing herything on social media. She was there
to be seen. But on this night, and again, we
just happened to be spending our time in mom talk
at the time when all this happened. We get up
one day we hear about a woman found dead on
a yacht at a yacht club that's right up the street,
(12:20):
for like a mile from us, right, So we get
this news, and so the initial story that came out
robes it immediately did make a whole lot of sense.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
It did not, no, not at all, because she's found
unresponsive on a yacht. They claimed there was no evidence
of violence. The cause of death is undetermined. But yet
we're hearing all of these details from folks who were
there in the marina. Apparently she met with him around
seven thirty. She told friends she was going on a
business meeting. Folks saw her going out cruising around in
(12:53):
one boat, correct Helena Bucket, and then switching over to
his other boat, the Ripple, which was docked there. The
next thing people report is this man, Christopher Dernan, running
naked down the dock, throwing items at boats, sunscreen and boats,
finding banging to try and get help. Why he didn't
(13:15):
call nine one one, Why he was naked? What the hell?
Why did he need other people to get help? It
sounded like he was out of his mind? And why
was he naked?
Speaker 1 (13:27):
He claims, Okay, you just robes explained every single As
soon as you hear this story, your first questions are
why is he naked?
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Right?
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Why didn't he call nine one one?
Speaker 2 (13:39):
What?
Speaker 1 (13:39):
We had all those questions initially, we didn't get some
kind of answers and filling in the blanks until we
heard from Dernan through his attorney later. Stay here, We're
going to explain his side of the story, including why
he was buck ass naked that night.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Stay here, Welcome back everyone to Amy and TJ on
this day after the year anniversary of Martha Nolan's death,
or at least the announcement of her death, and to
(14:20):
mark the anniversary, her family has filed a fifty million
dollar lawsuit to get against the man she was last
seen with, against the man they believe is responsible for
their daughter's death. We told you before the break about
all the mystery and bizarre behavior surrounding her death and
Christopher Derlan's behavior and activities. But we did finally get
(14:45):
to hear I guess it was a short while later
from his attorney about why those bizarre series events took place.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
It does this make any sense to you? He claims, Now,
so what we the story we just heard right that
they are going out on one boat came back, so
he claims they get on that second boat of his,
this one's called the Ripple, and they're actually sitting on
the dock having drinks for about an hour, and at
that point, coding to his attorney, she quote went limp.
He also said, out of nowhere went limp his words,
(15:16):
She was gone immediately. Now this was around ten thirty
to eleven, is what they put it. They said that
Derlin did give her CPR. Now ropes. If all this
is going on, you're sitting, you're having drinks, she goes limp.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
You call nine one one, You give her CPR, You
call nine one one.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
How do you end up naked running through the dock
trying to wake everybody up to give you help. You
just left the woman who needs desperate medical attention. They claim, Robe,
did you buy this He was naked because he took
all of his clothes off because she had vomited on him.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
No, that's not what you're worried about. You're not thinking, Wow,
let me take these clothes off that have vomit on
them so that I can be naked running around trying
to get help. That makes zero sense. Number one. Number two,
according to her family, there is no evidence from the police,
or from the autopsy, or for any reports that there
was vomit anywhere. There was no evidence of vomit being
(16:18):
a part of any of this, so that where those
doesn't make sense. Yes, it seems like that would be
verifiable that he would have vomit stained clothing, or there
would be vomit on the deck of the boat. There
would be something. The family also has made allegations that
police told them that the boat was cleaned up. So
there are lots of things that seem extremely suspicious about
(16:39):
what happened. And where was this period of time between
ten thirty and eleven and he was banging and running
around closer to midnight? So where what was happening in
that forty five minutes between when he actually claims she
went limp and he is known to have been trying
to get help.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Those are the most suspicious things. And again he has
not been accused by police. Have been you wrongdoing? His
attorney said absolutely, he didn't do anything wrong to cause
harm to her. That should be said Robes. But given
we have a case here where we're not getting answers
from the police, and you have a case and details
of it robes that simply do not make sense. And
(17:15):
the key, Robes is that hour you're talking about you're
talking about it It was possibly as early as ten
thirty according to him, that she went limp. Nine one
one's not called until midnight.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
That makes no sense, also, Ropes.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Even if it was eleven eleven fifteen when she went limp,
why is nine to one one not called until the robes?
That's tough and okay, you get vomit all over here.
We've had anybody's had issues before.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
You smell it. You can't get that smell away.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
What a man. The first thing you do is just
strip your shirt off, you throw it at You're not
taking off your pants and you underwear because I got
vomit on them. It's just that doesn't make sense. Maybe
he was drunk, maybe all kinds of things and he
wasn't thinking clearly, but robes, those are just things that.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Don't make sense exactly. And she also, by the way,
had been texting with her friends. There was a period
where she wasn't because she was out on that boat,
and her friends in this group chat were even teasing
maybe her phone's dead, maybe she's dead, ha ha ha.
She writes back about an hour later, like I'm not dead,
still here, And she texts her boyfriend that she's calling
an uber, that she's leaving, and then when she doesn't
(18:29):
show up, obviously he gets worried. So, yes, she is
in a relationship with a man who, according to her family,
she brought home and she wanted to marry. She was
in the middle of getting a divorce wrapped up and finalized,
and she had a new man and look, there are
a lot of folks who could think there are plenty
of things that went on or went down on that
(18:51):
boat that led to some sort of altercation which eventually
led to her death. And certainly that is what her
family is asserting.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Hey, look we the other thing and that she this
because it came from the attorney, you remember, the so
bizarre what the actual hell He made a suggestion that
they were in a relationship and then had to walk
it back that it just.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Doesn't because her friends and her boyfriend and her family
all vehemently denied that there was anything romantic going on
between Martha Nolan and this sixty something year old investor,
and he then, when they were questioned about it, because
he was even the attorney for Dernham, was actually implying
that somehow even he had met her family, and her
(19:33):
family flat out said absolutely not. We don't know who
this person is. We've never met him. And that is
when he had to walk back, well, maybe they weren't.
And then he kind of said, and this was really
unfair to Martha Nolan. Out of respect for her, I
don't want to say anything further. That was really really shitty.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Yeah, I was appreciating so shitty.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
I remember that and thought, man, if I were her friend,
if I were her boyfriend, if I were her family member,
that would have made me so angry because the impla
cation was that it was some secret affair that was
going on between Martha Nolan and this sixty year old
man you put both of their pictures up. Seems unlikely,
but look that was the absolute insinuation.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
But to do that to a dead woman, to suggest
she was running around, for one, cheating on the guy
she was in a long term relationship with, and to
what's sleeping with this guy so she can.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Get money, it's a horrible thing to what they put
out there. Absolutely, that is absolutely what they implied. So look,
this family wants answers and they've been waiting long enough.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Doesn't this remind you, Robes? It's not quite but we
have to do have to mention Robes. This is a
different bar level of what you have to prove. You
don't have to get over the same reasonable doubt hump
that you do in criminal court to get a civil judgment.
It's possible they could present whatever evidence they have in
court and a jury looks at that and say, yeah,
(20:54):
we think is more likely than not that he is responsible.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
This could happen, yes, and maybe through the family of
Martha Nolan, their investigative process, their independent autopsy, we may
actually find out and get the best answer for what
happened to this thirty three year old woman in Montalk
a year ago. And that is I think all anybody
wants to know is what happened and if someone should
(21:19):
be held accountable. Will follow this, We have been following that,
We will continue to follow this story. We always appreciate
you listening to us. I maybe roboch alongside TJ. Holmes.
We'll talk soon.
Popular Podcasts
Betrayal Weekly
Betrayal Weekly is back for a new season. Every Thursday, Betrayal Weekly shares first-hand accounts of broken trust, shocking deceptions, and the trail of destruction they leave behind. Hosted by Andrea Gunning, this weekly ongoing series digs into real-life stories of betrayal and the aftermath. From stories of double lives to dark discoveries, these are cautionary tales and accounts of resilience against all odds. From the producers of the critically acclaimed Betrayal series, Betrayal Weekly drops new episodes every Thursday. If you would like to share your story, you can reach out to the Betrayal Team by emailing them at betrayalpod@gmail.com and follow us on Instagram at @betrayalpod and @glasspodcasts. Please join our Substack for additional exclusive content, curated book recommendations, and community discussions. Sign up FREE by clicking this link Beyond Betrayal Substack. Join our community dedicated to truth, resilience, and healing. Your voice matters! Be a part of our Betrayal journey on Substack.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.