ROME — The family of a U.S. publishing executive killed in a boating collision in southern Italy is urging Italian authorities to fully investigate the Portsmouth native’s death and hold accountable anyone responsible.
“We are cooperating with the Italian authorities in their investigations, and will continue to do so until they conclude,” read the statement from Mike White, husband of Adrienne Vaughan, on behalf of her family.
Vaughan, 45, graduated from Churchland High School in 1996 and the College of William & Mary in 2000, according to her obituary. She went on to become president of Bloomsbury Publishing’s U.S. branch and was killed Aug. 3 when the rented motorboat she was aboard slammed into a chartered sailboat off the Amalfi Coast.
The motorboat’s skipper is under investigation for suspected manslaughter and causing a shipwreck, prosecutors have said. No charges have been announced.
Salerno Prosecutor Giuseppe Borrelli said Aug. 5 that Vaughan was sunning herself on the boat’s bow and bounced into the water at the moment of impact. Two doctors who were among the passengers on the sailboat dived into the sea to try to help and a nearby vessel brought her to shore, but Vaughan died before she could be taken to the hospital.
White and the motorboat’s skipper were injured; the family’s two children were unharmed.
In the statement issued by a spokesman, White said Vaughan’s death had devastated the family.
“Her absence from our lives and the terrible circumstances of her death are impossible to comprehend,” he said.
“We look to the Italian authorities to fully investigate the circumstances leading to Adrienne’s death, to ascertain where responsibility for this lies, and to ensure that any person who is found to bear responsibility is held accountable under the Italian criminal justice system,” he said, adding a request for privacy for the family.
