Mystery remains over couple found dead on luxury Sydney yacht after police find drugs

A father who was found dead on his luxury boat on Wednesday had reportedly been renovating it for the last year ahead of a sea change next week, with police having no idea what his cause of death was.

The body of plumber Peter Ray was found in Cammeray on Sydney’s North Shore alongside Lixin Wang’s body, with the pair believed to be romantically linked and aged in their 50s or 60s.

It is understood they were due to spend the night on the 47-foot luxury boat and met one another in separate cars before boarding the vessel, however, a friend of Ray’s notified the police after they were unable to get in touch with the plumber come Wednesday.

The boat was reportedly emitting a strong smell of gas fumes when authorities approached it, forcing police to notify NSW Fire and Rescue officers to assist with the search. Authorities are no further forward in understanding how the pair died, with no obvious signs of injury on their bodies.

Drugs were found on the boat and these, alongside the gas leak, are at the center of the police investigation, with a crime scene now established.

Boat owner was eager to ‘start afresh’, ex-wife said

Ray’s ex-wife Andrea told the Daily Telegraph he had been renovating his boat and had plans to move to Queensland on Wednesday to “start afresh”. She called him a devoted father to three children, aged 29, 27 and 19.

“He’s been doing it up to get it ready for racing … he was planning to race at Airlie Beach Race Week,” she said, with the event due to kickoff next Thursday. Ray has reportedly participated in many sailing events in Sydney.

Police treating deaths as ‘suspicious’

Police are treating the deaths as suspicious because there are no obvious signs of how the pair died.

“There is no obvious cause of death, so it’s not suspicious in that there is a knife or something like that, it’s more that we have to look at every piece of available evidence,” NSW Police Detective Inspector Siobhan Munro said on Thursday.

The bodies are expected to undergo a postmortem examination on Friday.

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