Top New York lawyer and his jewelry designer wife are among six still missing after superyacht sank off Sicilian coast

A wealthy American couple are among six people missing after a superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily.

Christopher Morvillo and his wife Neda have not been seen since the Bayesian foundered off Palermo Monday morning after being caught in bad weather.

Christopher, 59, worked as a lawyer for British tech billionaire Mike Lynch, who had chartered the vessel to celebrate a recent legal victory.

He is a partner at the prestigious Clifford Chance law firm, which has offices around the world.

Christopher previously served as an assistant US attorney for the Southern District of New York between 1999 and 2005. 

Neda, 57, has her own luxury jewelry line run under her maiden name, Neda Nassiri. 

The couple have an apartment on New York's Upper East side. They also own a luxurious four-bedroom, five bathroom home worth $2.3 million in South Kent, Connecticut.

They have two daughters - 27 year-old Sabrina, a voice actress, and 23 year-old Sophia, who studied the prestigious theater course at Northwestern University. 

The couple's identities were first revealed by the Daily Mail on Monday evening. 

Also missing is Mike Lynch and his 18 year-old daughter Hannah.

Lynch invited guests on board the luxury vessel after triumphing in a recent fraud trial. Lawyers from Clifford Chance - including Christopher Morvillo - and colleagues from his firm Invoke Capital were among those on board.  

Jonathan Bloomer - the London-based chairman of Morgan Stanley International - and his wife remain unaccounted for. 

Thomas Recaldo, the ship's Canadian-born cook, died in the sinking. 

The tragedy unfolded when the 180 foot superyacht was struck by a waterspout that destroyed the vessel and sank it. 

Fifteen people were rescued from the yacht, among them Mike Lynch's wife Angela Becares, 57.

She said the first sign of trouble came when the Bayesian developed a 'slight tilt' around 4am Monday morning that woke her up. 

Becares and others now anxiously await news of their missing loved ones, while a search and rescue operation continues.

Some of those missing are feared to have been asleep when the waterspout struck, hindering their chances of being able to escape the sinking ship. 

Survivors include a 15 month-old baby girl called Sofia, who was held aloft in the water by her mother Charlotte Golunski, 36.

Golunski, who works alongside Lynch at Invoke, told Italian newspaper Republicca: 

'I held her afloat with all my strength, my arms stretched upwards to keep her from drowning.

'It was all dark. In the water I couldn't keep my eyes open. I screamed for help but all I could hear around me was the screams of others.'

Golunski's husband James Emsilie, 36, is another survivor, as is Clifford Chance lawyer Ayla Ronald, 36. 

Other survivors included Irish woman Sasha Murray, 29, Matthew Fletcher, 41, from London, James Calfield 51, from New Zealand, Myin Htun Kyaw, 39, from Myanmar and the French Captain Matthew Griffith.

They were rescued by crews from nearby boats including that of Karsten Borner, the captain of a sailing ship anchored near the Bayesian, who said his team struggled to keep their boat afloat when the tornado hit.

Fabio Cefalu, a fisherman in Porticello who witnessed the tragedy unfold, said he saw a waterspout – a sort of mini-tornado – that lasted about 12 minutes shortly before 4am.

At around 4.10am he said he saw a red flare go off from Bayesian but by the time he was able to reach the area about 20 minutes later the yacht had all but disappeared. 'We found only the cushions, and a few planks floating in the water,' he said.