ROME — The skipper of a rented motorboat involved in a crash off the Amalfi Coast that killed a U.S. publishing executive is being investigated on suspicion of manslaughter, a prosecutor in southern Italy said Saturday.
Salerno Chief Prosecutor Giuseppe Borrelli said at a news conference in the port city that the skipper, an Italian who hasn’t been publicly identified, is also being investigated on suspicion of causing a shipwreck. No charges have been filed, and the investigation continues.
Adrienne Vaughan, 45, was killed and her husband and the skipper of the rented motorboat were injured in the accident Thursday afternoon off a stretch of coastline popular with tourists. The motorboat slammed into a chartered sailboat, on which 70 guests were enjoying a wedding reception.
Vaughan was the president of Bloomsbury Publishing’s U.S. branch, which counts writers from bestselling novelists Sarah J. Maas and Susanna Clarke to historian Mark Kurlansky among its roster of authors.
Blood samples were taken from the skipper to determine alcohol and drug levels. Borrelli indicated that for now the results were inconclusive.
“The results are being evaluated by a consultant of the prosecutor’s office since the data per se aren’t necessarily significant,” Borrelli said. He added that more evaluation was needed to determine “the incidence of the levels on the ability of the subject” to pilot the boat.
Italian news reports said Friday that the blood toxicology tests had found traces of cocaine.
Investigators have questioned the skipper, who remains hospitalized with what Italian media said are pelvis and rib fractures. The victim’s husband, Mike White, is being treated at another hospital for a shoulder injury, according to reports. Authorities have spoken to him and plan to do so again, Borrelli said.
The couple’s two young children were uninjured. They’re in the care of one of their grandfathers, who traveled to Italy to help while their father is convalescing, the prosecutor said.
Borrelli said that when the crash happened, Vaughan was sunning herself on the bow and “bounced” into the water at the moment of impact. He declined to detail her injuries, saying the results of an autopsy are pending.
Two doctors who were among the passengers on the sailboat dived into the sea to help Vaughan, while a nearby vessel took her to shore, Italian state radio said, quoting the sailboat’s captain.
Borrelli said the woman died before a medical helicopter and a local ambulance could take her to hospital.
The sailboat’s captain has told Italian media that the motorboat was speeding when it smashed into the stationary sailboat’s bow.
The prosecutor said investigators also questioned the captain of the sailboat, as well as 70 passengers, including U.S. and other foreign tourists.
The motorboat had set sail from the town of Amalfi, Borrelli said. According to Italian media, the family was headed to Positano, another popular coastal town.
A Bloomsbury book, “Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist’s Memoir of the Jim Crow South,” by the late Winfred Rembert (as told to Erin I. Kelly), won the Pulitzer Prize for biography last year.
Bloomsbury’s CEO, Nigel Newton, called Vaughan’s death “a terrible blow” in a statement.
“Adrienne was a natural business leader with a great future ahead of her. She was deeply loved by colleagues due to her combination of great personal warmth with a fierce determination to make the business succeed and grow,” Newton added. “Her business instincts were outstanding and she loved authors, readers and her colleagues equally.”
A statement from the Association of American Publishers, where Vaughan was a board member, called her a "leader of dazzling talent and infectious passion" and "an extraordinary human being."
"We send our love and condolences to all those who are in shock and mourning at this tragic loss, most particularly her husband and two children, whom she spoke of frequently with great pride," it said.
Before she worked for Bloomsbury, Vaughan worked for other publishers, including Scholastic, Disney Publishing Worldwide and Oxford University Press, according to the statement.
