Weeks Before Yacht Sank in Sicily, Missing Lawyer Shared Post About Living 'Happily Ever After'

Christopher Morvillo celebrated a major legal victory for his client Mike Lynch, who is also missing, in a post on LinkedIn weeks before the yacht tragedy

A New York City lawyer who went missing after a luxury yacht capsized off the coast of Italy during a storm wrote about living “happily ever after” just weeks earlier.

Christopher Morvillo, 59, is one of six people who remain missing after a waterspout hit the vessel off the coast of Sicily early on Monday, Aug. 19, a senior civil protection officer told PEOPLE on Monday, Aug. 19. 

Also missing are Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judy, Morvillo's wife Neda, as well as British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah.

A source close to the survivors tells PEOPLE that the group was "celebrating Lynch's acquittal" following a lengthy legal saga that dated back to the 2011 sale of Autonomy, a business software company Lynch founded, to Hewlett Packard.

Morvillo worked on the case, which ended in Lynch being acquitted on 15 fraud and conspiracy charges in June, according to the Associated Press and the BBC

"That's why he took his closest friends and colleagues on the trip, to celebrate," the source tells PEOPLE. "They had come from the Aeolian Islands, Milazzo and had arrived in Palermo."

Related: Captain Who Saw Yacht Sink in Sicily and Helped Rescue Survivors Calls Incident a 'Big Disaster'

One week after a San Francisco jury’s “swift exoneration” of Lynch and his colleague Steven Chamberlain, Morvillo thanked to a long list of litigators for their hard work on the case in a post on his LinkedIn page.

After noting he was “so glad to be home,” Morvillo ended his post with, “And they all lived happily ever after….”

Two months later, Morvillo, his wife, Lynch and Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter disappeared after the 56-meter yacht sank near Porticello.

Gary Lincenberg, an attorney who represented Lynch's colleague Chamberlain in the recent court case, told Business Insider that Morvillo and his wife "are presumed to be passed away.”

Lincenberg did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.

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News of the yacht sinking came shortly after Chamberlin was hit by a car while jogging in England. In a statement on Tuesday, Aug. 20, local police announced that he died in the hospital and that they are investigating his death.

"In the course of 48 hours, I can't process what has happened," Lincenberg told Business Insider.

Related: Diver Searching for 6 Missing People on Sunken Yacht Talks ‘Difficult’ Nature of Getting Inside

An estimated 12 passengers and 10 crew members were aboard the boat when it capsized, according to the BBC and Associated Press.

One person, identified as a cook from the boat, was found dead near the yacht, while authorities were able to rescue 15 people, including Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, local sources say.

Sicilian news agency Ansa reported that eyewitnesses revealed that the yacht was anchored off shore when it was struck by a tornado over the water, known as a waterspout, lost its balance and sank.

A waterspout is a tornado that forms over water, according to the National Oceanic and and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Some, but not all, “are associated with severe thunderstorms, and are often accompanied by high winds and seas, large hail, and frequent dangerous lightning.”

Typically, tornadic waterspouts “have the same characteristics as a land tornado.” NOAA says these particular storms “can be large and are capable of considerable destruction.”

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