What happened to Australian model Sinead McNamara?

Greek authorities have launched an investigation into the death of an Australian social media influencer whose body was found on a Mexican billionaire’s superyacht.

Instagram model Sinead McNamara, 20, was discovered unconscious on Thursday on the boat, which was docked on the Greek island of Kefalonia.

Attempts “were made to revive her at the scene, but she fell into a coma and died while being airlifted from the island hospital at Argostoli to a larger hospital in Athens”, reports The Daily Telegraph.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

McNamara had been working for four months as a crew member on the £108m Mayan Queen IV, owned by 87-year-old mining tycoon Alberto Bailleres.

Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) says it it has offered support to the McNamara family.

Who is Sinead McNamara?

McNamara, originally from Port Macquarie in New South Wales, “regularly posted pictures of her travels to her Instagram account, where she had more than 12,000 followers”, says the BBC.

In a post last month, she wrote: “Living & working on a boat seeing all that the world has to offer. Yep I think I have it pretty good.”

Her death has prompted an outpouring of grief, with family, friends and fans commenting under her final post - a picture of a secluded, wild stretch of northeast Kefalonia coastline.

“Thanks Sinead for photos of things I have not seen,” her grandmother wrote. A friend said McNamara had been “living the dream”.

How did she die?

The “circumstances of her death remain unclear”, says the BBC.

McNamara was found unconscious and “twisted in rope” at the rear of the massive yacht, The Australian newspaper reports.

Her cousin told Sydney-based newspaper The Daily Telegraph that the family believed it may have been a boating accident.

According to Greek media, the authorities have ordered that the yacht remain in the port of Argostoli while investigations take place.

Who was on board at the time?

Members of the Bailleres family - which owns one of the world’s largest silver mines and Mexico’s second-largest mining company - had been on the yacht, but left on Tuesday to return to Mexico.

The coast guard confirmed that only crew members were on board when McNamara’s body was found two days later.