Source: East End Drug Task Force probing designer Martha Nolan-O'Slatarra's death

Suffolk County's interagency East End Drug Task Force is investigating last week's death of swimsuit designer Martha Nolan-O’Slatarra on a boat docked at the Montauk Yacht Club, a source familiar with the inquiry confirmed to Newsday.

The investigation, which draws the first public link between drugs and Nolan-O’Slatarra's death, is moving forward on dual tracks, the source said Tuesday.

While Suffolk law enforcement await toxicology results from the Suffolk County Medical Examiner's Office — which are expected to take several months to complete — the task force is investigating the role drugs may have played in the death of Nolan-O’Slatarra, 33, of Manhattan.

Details about what drugs may have been involved, why they are suspected in the case or their potential origin were not available Tuesday.

While it looks "very likely" Nolan-O’Slatarra died of a drug overdose, investigators have not ruled out that the fashion designer’s death was a homicide or that she died of natural causes, according to the source.

"Until you start ruling stuff out, everything is in play," the law enforcement source said.

The Suffolk County District Attorney’s East End Drug Task Force is comprises district attorney investigators, the East Hampton Town Police Department, the Suffolk County Police Department, New York State Police, Riverhead Police Department, Southold Police Department, Southampton Town Police Department and Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office.

Suffolk police said last week that an autopsy conducted on Nolan-O’Slatarra, who was found dead Aug. 5 on the Ripple, a 32-foot pleasure boat docked at a Montauk marina, showed no evidence of violence. The cause of death is still pending, according to Suffolk police, who said Tuesday there was no update to the investigation.

Public records and sources show the 22-year-old Ripple is owned by Christopher P. Durnan, 60, of Long Beach.

Durnan owns a home in Montauk and another in Florida, records show. He is a widower with two young adult children who owns and operates an insurance business in Rockville Centre that focuses on workers' compensation insurance.

Calls, texts and emails left with Durnan, who has not been charged with a crime, were not returned.

East Hampton Town Police received a 911 call around midnight from a man about an unconscious woman on a boat at the yacht club, Suffolk police said last week. Good Samaritans tried to render CPR to Nolan-O’Slatarra, whom first responders ultimately pronounced dead.

Suffolk police declined Tuesday to identify the 911 caller and East Hampton Town Police did not respond to requests for comment.

Dylan Grace, Nolan-O’Slatarra's business partner, said the pair founded fashion line East x East in 2022. Its website describes the business as providing sustainable, unisex "resort wear" products such as sunglasses and swimsuits.

Nolan-O’Slatarra's TikTok page identifies her as founder of the fashion line and features dozens of videos shot in glamorous settings such as private jets, on a helicopter and in convertibles. One image shows a beachside East x East stall and includes the text "POV: The Brand you started 3 years ago has a Pop Up in the Hamptons."

Most recently, she launched a beachside pop-up at Gurney’s Montauk Resort and Seawater Spa.

The Irish-born Nolan-O’Slatarra had finalized her uncontested divorce from her husband, Sam Ryan, in April, New York State court records show.

The couple, records show, were married in Utah in 2020.

Efforts to reach Ryan and Grace on Tuesday were not immediately successful.

In a 2024 interview with the Irish Independent, Nolan-O'Slatarra — then going by the name Mary Nolan — said she'd been raised in the small Irish town of Carlow, attending the Institute of Education in Dublin and University College Dublin, where she studied commerce.

She later earned a master’s in digital marketing at UCD’s Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School in Dublin.

"I always knew I wanted to be successful, that I was money driven, business driven and that fashion is a tough industry and it would be a slow road," she told an interviewer with the Irish Independent. "I made friends in the institute and at college and a new group in New York, but I still have all my Carlow friends."

Nolan-O’Slatarra's LinkedIn page listed her as managing director of investment firm K4 Capital Management and as founder or principal of two other companies.

Her work experience shows several jobs in Ireland before she started working in the United States in 2015.

In 2020, at age 28, Nolan-O’Slatarra launched her first brand, Out East Eyewear, a luxury sunglasses business.

Funeral arrangements for Nolan-O’Slatarra, the Irish Independent reported, will be announced later this week.