A British stewardess found dead on a £6 million luxury yacht in the Mediterranean was the daughter of a renown psychic, neighbours have revealed.
Rebecca Boyle’s body was found in her cabin aboard the La Polonia, which was moored in the Italian Riviera port of Imperia, on Wednesday.
The 32-year-old, who lived in the fashionable Ladbroke Grove area of west London, is thought to have suffered a fatal head injury after falling down some stairs following a night of drinking.
According to neighbours, Rebecca’s mother, Laura Boyle, is a well-known psychic and used to see clients at her five bedroom semi-detached home in Acton, west London.
Laura Boyle, 57, boasts 30 years of experience and even has her own YouTube channel. But her website says she is no longer seeing clients and her company, has been dissolved
Rebecca Boyle (pictured) was found dead in her cabin aboard a luxury yacht on Wednesday after a night of heavy drinking
The 57-year-old boasts 30 years of experience and even has her own YouTube channel.
But her website says she is no longer seeing clients and her company, which was registered at the property, PsychicTodayTelevision, has been dissolved.
She is still director of a company called The Harley Hynosis Clinic and a Premium Phone Line company called Psychic and Soul Company.
She is listed as a hypnotherapist for the hypnosis clinic and a psychic consultant for another venture called The London School of Tarot – which she is also a director of.
Police are investigating the circumstances of her death and it is believed she sustained fatal head injuries in a fall down stairs
A neighbour says she has now given up her psychic work.
She said: ‘Laura used to read cards and tell the future.
‘But she hasn’t done that for a very long time.
‘She asked me to come round so she could read my cards a few times, but I always said ‘no’ as I don’t believe in that.
‘She lives there alone. She is renting the house out at the moment, but she is due back at the end of the week.’
The house is valued at more than £1 million by property website Zoopla and her well-kept property is believed to have been rented out to a rock band for the week.
Neighbours at Rebecca’s 1930’s London apartment block in the shadow of the Paddington main line described her as ‘genuinely nice.’
The 32-year-old’s colleagues went looking for her when she didn’t show for breakfast
One neighbour, who asked not to be named, said: ‘It’s such a shock.
‘I would see her quite a bit and she’d always say ‘hello’.
‘She’d make an effort to go out of her way and say ‘hello’ and have a chat.
‘You could tell she was a genuinely nice person.
‘She seemed quite reserved and maybe even shy, so it’s surprising that she did that kind of job. But I guess you don’t know until you know someone better.’
She added: ‘I wish I’d made more of an effort to speak to her because you could tell she was a good person.
‘She always said ‘hello’ to my mum, too. She’ll be shocked when I tell her.’
Another neighbour said: ‘I just knew her by sight.
‘I think she lived alone, but a black man would occasionally visit.’
A man called Chris , 36, who has lived in the same apartment block for nine years, said: ‘She was lovely.
‘She never caused any trouble here.
‘She kept herself to herself, but always said ‘hello’ to me and my kids.
‘She would always be coming back and forward with a suitcase and a few different guys now and again, black guys.
Ms Boyle lived in Ladbroke Grove, London, where neighbours spoke of their shock at her death
‘Me and my ex didn’t know much about her, didn’t know what she did or anything. We’d just say ‘hello’ when passing, it’s kind of like that round here.
‘The only other person that came to visit was her mum.’
He added: ‘It’s genuinely shocking to hear, she was so young. It’s always the nice ones it happens to.
‘I hope for the family gets this sorted out soon.’
She was found aboard La Polonia (above, before the vessel’s name was changed from Cherosa in 2014), which was moored in the Italian Riviera port of Imperia
A man answered the door at the smart Victorian terrace home of Rebecca’s sister, Emma Boyle, in Kentish Town, north London, and identified himself as Emma’s boyfriend.
He said the family would not be speaking and closed the door.
The man said: ‘She’s with her parents at the moment.
‘They are not here, they’re out.’
Deckhand Jonty Brits, the last person to see her alive, claimed the 32-year-old fell because she was ‘unsteady on her feet’ from drinking heavily the whole night
Deckhand Jonty Brits, the last person to see her alive, claimed the 32-year-old fell because she was ‘unsteady on her feet’ from drinking heavily the whole night.
He said the 154ft La Polonia was moored alongside the Dynamic, the boat he worked on, and he could see Ms Boyle talking with a crewmate about 7pm.
‘They were both drinking vodka straight out of the bottle and talking quite loudly,’ he told The Sun.
The South African said he left them to watch the game at the Le Grotte bar on shore, which was popular with boat crews.
Earlier reports indicated she watched the game at the bar, but Mr Brits said this was incorrect as he didn’t see her there – though the pub was crowded.
After the game he invited Ms Boyle and her colleague to join him in the hot tub of his boat and said she was too drunk to make much sense.
‘She was still drinking vodka but could only manage three sips or so. I had to help her down from the sundeck when she left around midnight,’ he said.
‘I got her off the boat OK, and helped her onto her own gangway. I could not go on with her because it was private.’
Mr Brits said he last saw her going through a door on the La Polonia alone while ‘very unsteady on her feet’.
He said he was certain of the chain of events as he was sober, and police told him his account was backed up by CCTV footage.
The 32-year-old’s colleagues went looking for her on the boat when she didn’t show for breakfast on Wednesday morning.
Mr Brits said he last saw her going through a door on the La Polonia alone while ‘very unsteady on her feet’
Emergency personnel were seen carrying Ms Boyle’s body from the boat after the tragedy
Police said they are treating Ms Boyle’s death as unexplained and have yet to rule out that another party was involved.
Officers are investigating the circumstances that led to her death and interviewing the yacht’s crew.
They said they couldn’t determine if alcohol played a part in her death as an autopsy has not yet been carried out.
Ms Boyle had only begun working on the yacht last week after she was hired by a Monaco crewing company as chief stewardess
Ms Boyle had only begun working on the yacht last week after she was hired by a Monaco crewing company as chief stewardess, according to The Sun.
La Polonia is a 150ft yacht that can accommodate 10 guests as well the crew of seven people – and costs £150,000 a week to charter.