Mystery Surrounds NYC Designer Martha Nolan's Death on Montauk Boat

A woman found dead on a boat docked in Montauk Tuesday has been identified as 33-year-old Manhattan entrepreneur and designer Martha Nolan-O’Slatarra, an Irish immigrant who founded her own clothing company, East x East, and went by Martha Nolan professionally. The cause of death remains a mystery, but authorities confirmed Wednesday that she was not a victim of violence.

According to Suffolk County Police, Nolan was discovered on a boat docked at Montauk Yacht Club on Star Island Road in Montauk around midnight Tuesday, August 5. East Hampton Town Police initially responded to a 911 call from a man reporting an unconscious woman on the boat. Good Samaritans attempted to perform CPR on Nolan, but she was pronounced dead on the boat by first responders, police said.

The New York Post reports that members of the Montauk Yacht Club heard screaming from the docks on Monday night.

Suffolk County Police Homicide Squad detectives are investigating the death and have yet to say whether foul play was involved. Police said the preliminary investigation and exam were inconclusive regarding the cause of death, which will be determined by an autopsy that was conducted by the Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s Office on Wednesday. They have already ruled out violence as a cause of death.

An article profiling Nolan in the Irish Independent from February 2024, noted she was from Carlow, known as the Celtic center of Ireland, and attended the Institute of Education in Dublin before heading to America to pursue her dreams. Here, she found success as a marketing consultant and built her sustainable fashion brand East x East, as well as, according to her LinkedIn, a company called Duper. She also listed herself as CEO of a company called Brand Growth Consultants since 2021.

She opened an East x East pop-up shop in the Montauk Beach House in summer of 2023, and in a TikTok noted that the brand stands for “New York by the Hamptons.”

“Our tag line is ‘built in the city, made for the sun.’ I absolutely adore it,” Nolan shared in the same post, adding, “I think it resonates with so many people on so many levels because I feel at some point everyone in their lives are, you know, grinding city life, but everyone is just destined for the sun.”

Nolan regularly posted on TikTok where she chronicled a glamorous, jet-set life with trips to St. Barthes, Mallorca, Palm Beach, Marbella, Nashville, home to Ireland and, of course, Montauk and New York City.

Anyone with information on her death is asked to contact Suffolk County Homicide Squad detectives at 631-852-6392.