Man who went diving with new wife only for her to never surface alive finally tells his side of the story
A man once branded 'The Honeymoon Killer' gave a chilling interview, nine years after being accused of murdering his wife during a honeymoon scuba dive.
In October 2003, 11 days after Alabama couple Gabe and Tina Watson tied the knot, the blushing bride was declared dead following a honeymoon voyage to the bottom of Australia's Great Barrier Reef.
The couple had previously practiced diving in their local quarry in their home city of Birmingham, with Gabe being the most experienced of the two of them, with 55 dives under his belt compared to Tina's 11.
Minutes after setting off towards the wreck of the SS Yongala, however, and Tina allegedly began struggling, before sinking deep beneath the waves.
What happened to Tina?
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Queensland police immediately voiced their suspicions of her husband, Gabe, with a fellow diver accusing him of having tampered with her air tank. Back home in America, Tina's family agreed, claiming Gabe had regularly questioned his wife's life insurance policy.
Unable to afford a trial in Australia, Gabe initially pled guilty to manslaughter, and served 18 months in prison.
Following his release, he was also tried in his home state, during which a judge - aided by a horde of witnesses - found considerable holes in the prosecutor's evidence, and dismissed the case.
Now, almost 22 years on from Tina's tragic passing - and 13 years since he gave the original interview - Gabe's side of the story has once again resurfaced.
Speaking to 60 Minutes Australia in 2012, he began his recollection of the weeks following his wife's death in an attempt to clear his name.
"It felt like for so long I'd wake up one day, and be like, 'Wow, that was just the worst dream ever'."
Reflecting on the day of the dive, Gabe claimed he harboured no concerns.
"I just thought it was going to be, you know, kind of like swimming around in blue water, where you just float along," Gabe explained. "My thoughts on [Tina being a novice] were, it's a dive company. If they don't think we're prepared or qualified for it, they'll let us know."
But minutes after he and Tina sank beneath the waves, he felt something was wrong.
What went wrong?
"There was this sensation of, 'We're not ready for this - this is the first dive of the trip, first dive in the open ocean - we're out of our comfort zone'," he explained. "I knew I was uncomfortable, and I turned to her, she turned to me, she motions, 'Let's get back'.
"So, I put two and two together that she wants to go back, go up the anchor rope and we'll just sit this dive out."
Gabe went on to claim he and Tina struggled to swim back against the current.
"I'm really starting to get worried now, because for some reason, she can't go up," he continued, revealing he attempted to tow her back to the surface.
"I can see that, to me, panic was settling in with her. I probably wasn't thinking rationally, but at the time, to me, it just seemed the thing to do to grab her, and I'm just going to swim for the both of us."
Gabe then recalls feeling a 'whack' across his face, sending his mask around the side of his face.
"I had to let go of her," he went on. "I turned around to look and see where Tina was, and she was down probably 10 feet or so. She was sinking. She was well out of arm's reach."
Claiming he didn't know how best to respond, Gabe claims he left his wife to go find help from a professional.
"I made the decision that, if I stay with her, if I try to continue to do something, that I'm probably going to make the situation worse. She still had her regulator in and she still had her mask on. She's got plenty of air still."
He went on to claim: "I think I did what a diver does when they get panicked and they're trying to help somebody, and they realise that they can't help. I still had the capability at that point to go find help."
Eventually, a divemaster recovered Tina, and she was transported unconscious to a second boat. Sadly, however, attempts at CPR were unsuccessful.
"That was the worst moment ever," Gabe tearily recalled. "I don't think that's something you can ever get out of your mind."
Why was Gabe accused?
Asked how he felt to be accused by police in the weeks that followed of turning Tina's air supply off whilst the pair were embraced, Gabe admitted he was both 'shocked' and 'p****d' when all fingers were initially pointed in his direction.
"It's pretty devastating for someone to say, 'You murdered your wife, and you did it for money on your honeymoon'."
Unusual behaviour he exhibited in the weeks that followed Tina's death - including him throwing out flowers placed on her grave by her family, and joking in public formed part of a case against him.
"I was still reeling from Tina's death," he explained. "And the Thomases [her family] and various other people were basically accusing me of murder, and it was just a bone-head thing that I did.
"It's not something I'm proud of."
After eventually having his name cleared during his US hearing, Gabe has since remarried and removed himself from the public eye.
Asked in his interview if he ever gets angry over the accusations made against him, he insisted during his 60 Minutes interview: "I'm just laid back. It would take a lot for someone to get me angry like that.
"[I'm] angry on the inside, but not enough to lash out because it's not how I want to live the rest of my life."
Topics: True Crime, Crime, US News
Rhianna Benson