Husband to stand trial for new wife’s death while scuba diving in 2003
By Mike Celizic
TODAYShow.com contributor
updated 8:26 a.m. MT, Wed., Dec. 3, 2008
A day hasn’t gone by during the past five years that Tommy Thomas hasn’t thought about how and why his newlywed daughter died while scuba diving with her husband on their honeymoon in Australia.
He still doesn’t have an answer, but an Australian court’s decision to indict Gabe Watson on charges of murdering Thomas’ daughter, Tina, brings Tommy Thomas one step closer to seeing the mystery played out in a court of law.
“It has been a long five years. It’s been a painful five years,” Thomas told TODAY’s Meredith Vieira from San Diego on Wednesday. “It’s good to see that Tina is finally going to get her day in court and the justice she deserves. That’s what we wanted.”
That day in court is still some time off. In June, Australian police decided that there was enough evidence to charge Gabe Watson with Tina’s murder. It took five months before a judge in Australia formally charged Watson with murder and set a trial date for Feb. 3 in Townsville Colonial Court in Queensland. If Watson does not voluntarily appear to be tried, extradition proceedings could take many months more.
And there is no guarantee that American courts will order an extradition.
Watson declined an invitation to appear on the program, but his lawyer, Bob Watson, told TODAY, “Gabe is innocent of any wrongdoing relating to the demise of his wife.” He did not tell TODAY if Watson would appear for trial or fight extradition, but he has been quoted in a Birmingham, Ala., newspaper as saying, “It could be to our benefit to resist [extradition] and see if the American legal authorities side with us.”
Thomas said the years of waiting and uncertainty have taken their toll. “It’s been very difficult for our family,” he told Vieira. “This has been all about trying to get the truth about what happened to our daughter and trying to get justice for Tina. As long as I’m breathing, I’ll be working toward that.”
Gabe and Tina Watson became husband and wife in Alabama on Oct. 11, 2003. Eleven days later, Tina was dead, the victim of a drowning while scuba diving with her husband on a shipwreck off Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
Gabe Watson was a certified rescue diver. He told police that his wife got caught in a current and panicked. He said she tried to rip his mask off, and that he was unable to bring her to the surface, so he decided to return to the surface for help while she sank to the ocean floor.
Another diver on the expedition, Gary Stempler, took a picture of Tina Watson on the ocean floor, some 100 feet below the surface, lying motionless on her back, her arms stretched upward as if reaching for help.
Police initially ruled the death an accident. But nagging questions and inconsistencies and changes in Watson’s story prompted police to reopen the investigation. After re-enacting various possible scenarios in the water, they theorized that Watson grabbed his new wife in a bear hug and shut off her air supply until she drowned.
He then turned her air supply back on and let her sink to the bottom as he swam to the surface, purportedly for help, police said.
Police said that Watson changed his story 16 times during the lengthy investigation. Other divers among the more than 20 people on the expedition also questioned Watson’s account. One of them, Ken Snyder, told NBC News that on hearing Watson’s story, he replied, “Gabe, that didn’t happen, and you better come up with something else because that story didn’t happen.”
Thomas told Vieira that 65 witnesses testified and more than 100 exhibits were presented during the four-week hearing earlier this year that led to Watson’s being charged with murder. Thomas attended the entire hearing and said he will be in Australia if Watson is tried.
“Part of wanting to get to the truth of what happened to Tina was being there and hearing firsthand what they saw and heard,” Thomas said.
Tina Watson was 26 when she died. She had a life insurance policy, but she reportedly had rejected her husband’s request to name him the beneficiary. He filed a claim after her death, but received no money from the policy, Thomas has said.
Tina’s family have said that Watson, a former high school football player, had shown a bullying and controlling side after he and Tina were engaged. Alabama newspapers have reported that Gabe Watson has a business manufacturing bubble-pack.
Thomas said he has spoken to his former son-in-law just once since his daughter’s death on Oct. 22, 2003.
“That was a couple of weeks after the funeral,” he told Vieira. “It was actually the day before Thanksgiving, in his attorney’s office at his attorney’s request. I haven’t spoken to him since. That’s been over five years ago now.”
URL: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/28030877/