Source: People
Five years after Christina Mae Watson died while scuba diving on her honeymoon, authorities in Australia now believe she was murdered – and they've charged her husband with the crime.
David Gabriel Watson, 31, of Birmingham, Ala., faces possible extradition to Australia, where the coroner issued the murder indictment Friday after an investigation spanning months. If convicted of murder, the maximum penalty is life in prison.
"He's very disappointed, very distraught and displeased," his attorney, Bob Austin, said, according to the Australian Associated Press.
The couple had been married just 11 days when Christina, who went by "Tina," drowned while diving in October 2003 at a shipwreck in the waters off the northeastern city of Townsville.
Her husband, who calls himself Gabe, told Queensland police his wife, a novice diver, panicked minutes after entering the water and grabbed his mask, pushing it off his face. Gabe, who is a certified rescue diver, then swam to the surface instead of helping her. Another member of the dive team, who stopped to photograph his dive buddy with an underwater camera, inadvertently captured a photo of her body lying on the seabed.
A witness during the coroner's inquest testified Watson's ascent to the surface was "pedestrian and controlled," contradicting Watson's statements to the police that he "rocketed to the top." In addition, Tina's father, Tommy Thomas, told authorities that Gabe had asked her before their wedding to increase her life insurance and make him the sole beneficiary.
"We're actually relieved to hear the coroner's findings," Thomas told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. "It's something that we have dealt with for quite some time and it validated our beliefs."
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