{"id":4586,"date":"2025-08-12T17:48:38","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T00:48:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/?p=4586"},"modified":"2025-08-12T17:48:38","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T00:48:38","slug":"fashion-designer-found-dead-in-montauk-was-about-to-divorce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/?p=4586","title":{"rendered":"Fashion Designer Found Dead in Montauk Was About to Divorce"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tWhile the cause of death for the late fashion designer Martha Nolan O\u2019Slatarra has not been officially announced, the public\u2019s interest in her life and the circumstances of her death continue.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs investigators continue to examine the case and try to reel in leads, O\u2019Slatarra\u2019s career and death are attracting much scrutiny and speculation via news reports and social media.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Irish-born designer was found on Aug. 5 on a docked boat, after a 911 call had been placed by a man who reported an unconscious woman at the Montauk Yacht Club. Good Samaritans had attempted to perform CPR on O\u2019Slatarra, according to officials at the Suffolk County Police Department.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 33-year-old was pronounced dead on what was said to be a Long Beach, N.Y.-registered vessel called the \u201cRipple.\u201d Last week, the Suffolk County Police Department, which took over the investigation from the East Hampton Police Department, said there were no signs of violence based on a preliminary investigation.<\/p>\n

\n\tAn autopsy is being conducted by the Suffolk County medical examiner\u2019s office. The cause of death has not been announced, according to a representative in that office. The Suffolk County Police Department had not acknowledged a media request Tuesday afternoon regarding the official cause of death.<\/p>\n

\n\tO\u2019Slatarra had recently wound down a pop-up shop at the Gurney\u2019s Resort in Montauk for her four-year-old bikinis and lifestyle brand East x East. Originally from what the Irish media described as \u201ca farming family\u201d in the community of Carlow, Ireland, the designer earned a master\u2019s degree in digital marketing at the University College Dublin, where she had also picked up a bachelor\u2019s degree in commerce before that. She moved to the U.S. about 10 years ago and worked in a series of tech-related jobs before focusing on fashion. O\u2019Slatarra had been living in the Yorkville neighborhood of the Upper East Side in Manhattan.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Montauk<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>

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\t\t\t\t\tMontauk Yacht Club and Resort in Montauk, N.Y.<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBilly Black<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tAlong with heading up her own company, O\u2019Slatarra acted as director of operations at K4 Capital Management and chief executive officer of Brand Growth Consultants.<\/p>\n

\n\tO\u2019Slatarra reportedly went to the Montauk Yacht Club on Aug. 4 to meet with independent insurance agent Christopher Durnan, who is said to have invested $200,000 in her company. Media requests to Durnan, who runs the Rockville Centre, N.Y.-based Durnan Group, Inc., were unreturned Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Manhattan-based designer was also in the process of divorcing her husband Sam Ryan. His divorce attorney David Centeno declined to comment about any private details of that matter, due to his attorney-client confidentiality obligations. Centeno said that the final papers had been submitted to the court prior to O\u2019Slatarra\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

\n\tHowever, Centeno said that contrary to a published report, neither he nor anyone at his New York-based firm took any actions in the court as a financial settlement step following her death. He said, \u201cThat is categorically false. To correct the record, the only action that my firm took after submitting the final divorce papers was to promptly notify the court of Miss O\u2019Slatarra\u2019s passing so that no judgment of divorce would be issued. I took no other legal action regarding her death. That is pretty straightforward. It\u2019s what an attorney is obligated to do, if they learn of one of the parties\u2019 deaths. You have to let the court know, \u2018Hey, one of them died. Don\u2019t go ahead and sign the divorce [papers]\u2019 because that could create a real mess.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRyan could not be reached for comment Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\n\tO\u2019Slatarra\u2019s boyfriend, who was reportedly Nicholas DiRubio, was reportedly out-of-town, when she was in Montauk. Reached by WWD Tuesday, DiRubio said, \u201cNo comment. Please lose my number\u201d and hung up the phone.<\/p>\n

\n\tDiRubio is vice president of sales and distribution at StandWellness Distribution. O\u2019Slatarra is listed on the company\u2019s site as head of marketing. The well-known medical doctor in integrative medicine Jeffrey A. Morrison is a founding partner at the company.<\/p>\n

\n\tRecent media coverage also referenced a lawsuit that O\u2019Slatarra and her friend Dylan Grace had filed against Out East Eyewear founder Jeremy Valeda. In the fall of 2020, O\u2019Slatarra started a 17-month run at the company as chief marketing officer. Valeda and his attorney did not respond to media requests Tuesday, nor did the attorney, who represented Grace and O\u2019Slatarra in that matter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While the cause of death for the late fashion designer Martha Nolan O\u2019Slatarra has not been officially announced, the public\u2019s interest in her life and the circumstances of her death continue. As investigators continue to examine the case and try to reel in leads, O\u2019Slatarra\u2019s career and death are attracting much scrutiny and speculation via news reports and social media. The Irish-born designer was found on Aug. 5 on a docked boat, after a 911 call had been placed by a man who reported an unconscious woman at the Montauk Yacht Club. Good Samaritans had attempted to perform CPR on O\u2019Slatarra, according to officials at the Suffolk County Police Department. The 33-year-old was pronounced dead on what was said to be a Long Beach, N.Y.-registered vessel called the \u201cRipple.\u201d Last week, the Suffolk County Police Department, which took over the investigation from the East Hampton Police Department, said there were no signs of violence based on a preliminary investigation. An autopsy is being conducted by the Suffolk County medical examiner\u2019s office. The cause of death has not been announced, according to a representative in that office. The Suffolk County Police Department had not acknowledged a media request Tuesday afternoon regarding the official cause of death. O\u2019Slatarra had recently wound down a pop-up shop at the Gurney\u2019s Resort in Montauk for her four-year-old bikinis and lifestyle brand East x East. Originally from what the Irish media described as \u201ca farming family\u201d in the community of Carlow, Ireland, the designer earned a master\u2019s degree in digital marketing at the University College Dublin, where she had also picked up a bachelor\u2019s degree in commerce before that. She moved to the U.S. about 10 years ago and worked in a series of tech-related jobs before focusing on fashion. O\u2019Slatarra had been living in the Yorkville neighborhood of the Upper East Side in Manhattan. Montauk Yacht Club and Resort in Montauk, N.Y. Billy Black Along with heading up her own compan…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4586"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}