Scuba diver accused of drowning wife breaks down after being shown body in court
A man accused of murdering his wife during their scuba-cruise honeymoon broke down in court - when shown a harrowing picture of his wife on the seabed.
Gabe Watson was accused of being involved in the death of his wife Tina, 26, when she sank down to the seabed during a scuba dive in Australia in 2003, 11 days after their marriage. The case was thrown out by a judge in 2012 who said there was a lack of evidence to convict Watson of murder - but many still feel the circumstances behind his wife’s death are dubious.
The couple planned to dive down the anchor line of their ship, drift across the top of a wreckage, and go up another anchor line to return to the surface. But according to Watson, a strong current caused them to drift off course. "As soon as we let go," he said, "we were moving, moving quite a bit. ... It was definitely not what I was expecting, and neither was Tina."
When they were unable to swim back against the current, Watson claims he motioned to his wife to fill up her buoyancy compensator, so they would start floating up. But it didn’t work, he says.
"Nothing happened from the inflator hose," Watson said. "That was when I realized, you know, We're -- This isn't good. We're in trouble. So I reached out and grabbed a hold of the b.c. strap right there. And I just pulled her in, and then I turned and started heading back to the anchor rope."
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Watson was tried on suspicion of murder in Alabama (Dave Hunt/EPA/REX/Shutterstock)He says he felt a “whack across my face” from Tina and his mask got displaced. Gabe let Tina go in order to replace his mask properly - but when he looked back, she was 10 feet down and still sinking. "She was face up, and she had her arms up. She was reaching out for me to grab ahold of her."
"I kinda just turned on my head and gave a few kicks down to see if I could grab her," he added. "And she was still out of arm's reach. And that -- I just decided I got to go find somebody." He left and swam to the surface.
"I don't think I was making rational choices at that point," said Watson. "I don't know what I would have done had I stayed with her. I don't know that there's anything that I was actually capable of doing."
After reaching the surface he yelled for help, before a dive master went down to find Tina and bring her up - before crew members and fellow passengers made futile attempts for 40 minutes to resuscitate her. A harrowing image shows Tina’s body lying on the floor of the seabed, seemingly dead, when the dive master went down to find her body. It is said that Watson broke down in court when shown this picture.
He says of the moment he was told by fellow passenger John Downie that his wife was dead: "I just- I just collapsed onto him... We just all kinda piled into each other and at some point fell to the floor. And I don't know how long that went on. I- I mean- I was devastated."
After being interviewed by Australian police, Watson became a suspect in the death of his wife. Some passengers said that Watson’s story didn’t add up. But diving medical expert Dr Carl Edmonds said that it "It all fits together ... as a very common drowning accident."
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