Tech Tycoon Mike Lynch's Suspected Cause of Death Revealed Weeks After Sicily Yacht Sinking

The provisional cause of death for British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, who was aboard a luxury yacht with friends and family when it sank off the coast of Sicily in August, has been revealed in a U.K. court proceeding, according to multiple news outlets.

Detective Superintendent Mike Brown of Suffolk Police said during a coroner's inquest in Ipswich on Friday, Oct. 4, that the 59-year-old was determined to have drowned following a postmortem examination, the BBC and The Guardian report.

Causes of death remain under investigation for Lynch's 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, as well as Morgan Stanley International's chairman, 70-year-old Jonathan Bloomer, and his 71-year-old wife, Judy Bloomer, who were all with Lynch on the Bayesian when it sank.

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Brown said the yacht was about 0.8 nautical miles (a little less than a mile) from shore when it rapidly sank with 22 people onboard on Monday, Aug. 19, amid what Italian authorities have said was dangerous weather.

Seven people died, including six passengers and one crew member: a cook, Recaldo Thomas.

As authorities in Sicily continue to investigate, four separate inquests in the U.K. have now reportedly been opened, for the four U.K. victims. Those proceedings began Friday and then were adjourned until April 15, 2025.

Italian officials have sought additional testing on the yacht victims to determine if some of them may have suffocated in an air pocket on the vessel as it sank, PEOPLE previously reported.

A source close to the survivors previously told PEOPLE that Lynch was celebrating his acquittal in a fraud case in the U.S. when the Bayesian sank.

New York City attorney Christopher Morvillo, who was on the yacht with his wife, Neda Morvillo, a jewelry designer, had helped defend Mike during his trial in San Francisco.

The couple also died, with the initial indication that they drowned, pending further testing, as no water was found in their bodies.

In a post on LinkedIn following the June verdict, Christopher thanked the team of trial lawyers who worked on the case before writing, “And they all lived happily ever after….”

Meanwhile, Lynch's daughter Hannah was planning to begin her academic year at the University of Oxford, according to The Telegraph.

Fifteen people survived the sinking, including Angela Bacares, Lynch's wife and Hannah’s mother.

Karsten Borner, the captain of a nearby boat named Sir Robert Baden Powell, previously told PEOPLE that Bacares “didn't want to leave” the scene of the sinking because her husband and her daughter were still missing.