Dive bride's last minutes

[ScubaLouie]

Just 10 days into her honeymoon and the "beautiful, bubbly, blonde" American bride was found lying dead on the sea floor of the Great Barrier Reef.

Moments later, her rescue diver husband David Gabe Watson surfaced screaming: "I've lost my wife."


Yesterday state coroner David Glasgow opened an inquest into the death of Christina Mae Watson, 24, while diving on the wreck of the Yongala, 89km southeast of Townsville, on October 22, 2004.

Outside the court, her grieving parents Tommy and Cindy Thomas summed up their four-year fight for truth with the simple observation: "Well, he's not here, is he?"

Barrister Steve Zillman, who is representing Watson, said his US-based client may yet give evidence by video-link.

Lead investigator Detective Sergeant Gary Campbell, of Townsville CIB, told the court he had a dozen points of concern about the "conflicting" evidence of the husband and key witness.

Mr Watson told police his wife, an inexperienced diver with only 12 open water dives, panicked in strong currents and pulled his mask off his face and his regulator from his mouth.

The powerfully-built Watson said he was unable to restrain his struggling wife, who was 173cm tall and weighed 63kg, and swam to the surface for help, leaving her sinking in 30m of water.

Watson, a certified rescue diver, had been trained to rescue distressed, panicked or unconscious divers.

Dive instructor Wade Singleton spotted her lifeless body lying on the sea floor, 16m from the wreck of the Yongala. Despite the efforts of two highly qualified doctors on the dive boats, she could not be resuscitated.

Post-mortem examinations found she may have suffered oxygen deprivation before drowning.

 
Sgt Campbell said witnesses saw Watson holding an unmoving Tina "in a bear-hug" face-to-face for 10 seconds before letting her go and swimming to the surface.

 
The inquest continues.

[MCoop]

I remember this.  Like it says above bit the aussies and american law enforcement agencies have been looking in to this for years.  Last I heard they tried to recreate her last dive with the same conditions and current. 

[ScubaLouie]

Tina Watson, circled, struggles as an instructor, left, swims over to her as the middle diver seems oblivious.

[Don Wray]

THE coronial inquest into the death of honeymooning scuba diver Tina Watson was told yesterday it would be "very easy" to kill an inexperienced diver underwater.

Barrister Damien Atkinson, representing dive operator Mike Ball Expeditions, posed the scenario in cross-examining dive instructor Wade Singleton.

Mr Singleton, now an ambulance paramedic, was the trip director on the dive boat Spoil Sport when Mrs Watson died while diving on the shipwreck of the Yongala, off Townsville, on October 22, 2003.

The highly qualified instructor found the lifeless body of the former model, 26, "abandoned" on the sea floor by her dive partner and husband of just 10 days, Gabe Watson.

Mr Singleton rushed her to the surface and tried to revive her for 30 minutes before she was declared dead.

A post-mortem found she may have suffered oxygen deprivation before drowning.

Mr Atkinson asked: "If you were trying to hurt somebody, and if the main air supply was turned off, would they go quickly into hypoxia?"

"Yes," Mr Singleton replied.

"They would go into spasms and not long after that they would be well gone?"

"Yes."

"And if you wanted to make it look like no harm was intended you could turn the air supply back on?" Mr Atkinson asked.

"Yes."

Seven minutes after seeing the Watsons on the surface, Mr Singleton found the woman lying dead 28m down on the sea floor with air in her tank, her regulator working and in her mouth, but no air in her buoyancy control device.

Mr Watson – who lives in Hoover, Alabama – has declined to attend the inquest but is to give evidence by video-link. He has been named as a suspect in the death by police in Helena, Alabama.

Mr Singleton fought back tears as barrister Harvey Walters, on behalf of Mrs Watson's parents Tommy and Cindy Thomas, yesterday thanked him for his efforts.

"You took her to the surface without regard for your own safety," Mr Walters said.

"You worked an extraordinary amount of time to try to save her.

"And you allowed them to take their daughter home and not let her be lost to the ocean."

Mr Singleton said Mr Watson, a trained rescue diver, broke all protocols when he abandoned his wife, who was clearly in distress and clutching at his regulator for air.

A witness saw Mr Watson holding his unresponsive wife in a face-to-face "bear-hug".

A police dive re-enactment found it took Mr Watson "a pedestrian" two minutes to get 15m to the surface.

But it took Mr Singleton a minute-and-a-half to travel twice the distance carrying Mrs Watson's body.

The inquest continues.

[Don Wray]

Husband 'may have restricted wife's air supply'

By Peter Michael

November 21, 2007 02:00am
Article from: The Courier-Mail

Font size: + -

Send this article: Print Email

GABE Watson stared into the eyes of his dying bride as he held her in an underwater bear-hug before letting her go and watching her slip into the darkness, a coronial inquest heard yesterday.

Honeymooning scuba diver Tina Watson, 26, of Alabama in the US, knew she was in danger and the "look on her face was awful", the inquest was told.

Foul play, faulty equipment or a medical condition have emerged as some of the "many possibilities" behind the death of former model Christina Mae Watson on the wreck of the Yongala, off Townsville, on October 22, 2003.

On the second day of a two-week hearing into her death, her parents Tommy and Cindy Thomas wept openly as they hugged dive instructor and former Israeli army paramedic Uzi Barnai, who tried for 30 minutes to revive their daughter.

Post-mortem examinations show she died of oxygen deprivation before drowning.

The court was told her husband had 16 versions of the incident.

Mr Watson - who lives in Hoover, Alabama - is due to give evidence to the hearing by video-link.

He declined to attend the inquest in person.

Barrister Steve Zillman, representing Mr Watson, read the graphic account of Ms Watson's last moments - as observed by Dr Stanley Stutz - to the Townsville Coroner's Court.

"Her arm and leg movements were unco-ordinated," the statement read.

"The look on her face was awful, I had the belief she knew she was in danger, her eyes were wide open."

It was then that her husband of just 10 days swam to her and put his arms under her armpits and around her back in the vicinity of her air tank.

The court was told he held her for 10 seconds before letting go and swimming to the surface while she sank.

In cross-examining police investigator Detective Sergeant Gary Campbell, Mr Zillman asked the relevance of the "bear-hug".

He suggested she appeared to be in trouble before the observed contact.

"Is it conceivable that he may have restricted her air supply and caused her death?" Mr Zillman asked.

"That is the relevance, yes," Det Sgt Campbell replied.

The inquest continues.

[ScubaLouie]

A Hoover man whose wife died while scuba diving on their 2003 Australian honeymoon awaits a court decision on whether he can collect on an insurance policy taken out for their trip.

Gabe Watson's wife, Christina "Tina" Thomas Watson, died Oct. 22, 2003, during a group scuba diving expedition off the coast of Queensland. The 26-year-old had married Watson 11 days earlier.

An autopsy and tests conducted in Australia determined that Watson drowned, but the cause has been the subject of a four-year investigation by Australian and U.S. police.

Watson has named Old Republic Insurance Co., Travelex Insurance Services Inc. and Get Away Travel in a lawsuit for denying policy payment and causing him monetary damages and mental anguish.

The suit is scheduled to be heard in February in Jefferson County Circuit Court.

The suit asks for approximately $45,000 in payment on the policy and unspecified punitive and mental anguish damages.

According to the suit, filed March 30, 2005, the policy provides $25,000 for common carrier accidental death benefit and a $10,000 benefit for 24-hour, or around-the-clock, accidental death. The policy also provides for such matters as trip cancellation or interruption, medical expense, itinerary change and baggage delay.

Watson submitted the claim on or around Oct. 26, 2003, according to his suit.

According to court filings, Old Republic, the underwriter, has denied the claim Watson made on the policy, which he purchased for $484. The company said the policy excludes injury or loss of life while participating in scuba diving.

The companies' claim also says Watson did not inform their representatives that the trip included scuba diving and that a brochure provided when Watson bought the insurance "specifically informed the plaintiff that the plan exclusions apply and directed him to a Web site and other documents for a full list" of exclusions.

Watson's complaint says he told the agent who made the couple's travel arrangements that the trip included scuba diving, and information he was provided when purchasing the insurance policy did not contain any exclusion for coverage.

A February 2006 request by the insurance and travel companies to dismiss the suit was denied in an order issued by Circuit Court Judge Edward Ramsey of Jefferson County.

In the document, Ramsey said, "While defendants argue that the policy exclusions were sent to the plaintiff, there is no evidence before the court to that effect. There is evidence that plaintiff was advised that a complete description of the plan could be obtained at defendant's Web site."

Attorneys for the insurance companies declined comment.

Efforts to reach Brett Bloomston, Watson's attorney, were unsuccessful.

A two-week coroner's inquest into the cause of Tina Watson's death began Nov. 19 in Australia and will reconvene Jan. 21.

Gabe Watson did not attend the inquest but is expected to testify by phone during the second phase of the proceeding, according to his attorneys.

[scubadowop]

I saw on Fox News today where Mr. Watson was convicted this week for his wifes death at the Great Barrier Reef.

[jimdiverman]

He's been indicted, but he is not convicted.... yet.

The poor guy not only loses his newly wed wife, but he has to spend his own money to go back to Australia by himself to defend himself on a murder charge.  First of all, the guy was not a "rescue swimmer".  If he was PADI certified, that means he knew to call 911.  And in Australia, going to get help was about as much as he could do.  If he loses, he should sue PADI for being called a Rescue diver.

[frankc420]

I doubt the guy killed her, he was probably trying to help her.  Without video evidence there's no way to know what really happened.  Chances are she freaked out for some reason and was flailing like a crazy lady.