ABE WATSON, the "honeymoon killer"

Nov 27 2010

This article is about the death of Christina Mae Watson nee Thomas, known as Tina to her family and often called Christina in Australia. She was a 26-year- old American woman from Alabama. She died on her honeymoon on the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, Australia in 2003. She had only been married to her husband, David Gabriel "Gabe" Watson, for 11 days when she died. The doctor who performed the autopsy said she drowned in a scuba diving accident. Six years later, Gabe Watson was charged for murder and manslaughter. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sent to prison for a year by an Australian court.

Gabe Watson has been charged with the murder of his wife, Tina

Watson had ‘hoped to make millions from death of his spouse'.


ABE WATSON could be seen sitting quietly in a window seat at the rear of Qantas flight 93's economy cabin as it sped down the runway, lifted off and the city of Melbourne, Australia faded away below.

Sitting next to the convicted killer was a senior Queensland officer. The aisle seat was purposely left spare, but the four seats across were taken up by two other Queensland police officers in suits and two officers from Australia's Immigration Department.
"He particularly appeared to enjoy the ice cream," a passenger, who sat nearby, observed during one of the flight's food services.
"He seemed very polite. Said 'thank you' to the flight attendants when they offered him a drink or food, but the police didn't appear to speak to him at all."
The passenger, who asked not to be named, said she realized who Watson was when her husband pointed out a photo of the man labeled the "honeymoon killer" in the newspaper he was reading on the plane.

Tina

Without the paper, it probably would have clicked anyway when Watson went to the toilet - which was "quite a few times" during Thursday's 14 hour flight from Melbourne to Los Angeles.
"Each time he got up all of the police with him got up as well. It was quite an exercise," the passenger said.
"The police stood outside the toilet while Gabe went in, but he wasn't allowed to lock the door."
Waiting for Watson at Los Angeles international airport were US authorities, who, acting on warrants issued by the Alabama Attorney-General, took 33-year-old Watson into custody minutes after the plane landed.

The state of Alabama has charged Watson with one count of capital murder in the course of kidnapping and one count of capital murder for pecuniary gain relating to the death of his wife of just 11 days, Tina. Tina was found dead on the seafloor during a scuba dive off the coast of Townsville on October 22, 2003, and Alabama prosecutor Don Valeska says Watson killed her as part of a plan to pocket "millions of dollars" by suing an insurance company that held one of his bride's policies.
Tina had two policies, one from her work and the other travel insurance taken for their Australian honeymoon, that were worth about $US200,000, Mr Valeska said.



->The body (ringed): The tourist spotted it only after the picture was developed.Left for dead: Tina Watson's body was captured in Gary Stempler a diver's photograph as it lay on the sea bed..Other people were diving near Gabe and Tina when Tina died. One diver photographed Tina, lying on the ocean floor, while taking a picture of another diver on holiday. This picture was not known until a couple of weeks later when the pictures were developed. Investigators are uncertain if Tina was already dead in the picture or if she was unconscious. The picture gives no clues as to what made Tina sink to the bottom.


"Gabe sued one of the insurance companies, and then he dropped that," Mr Valeska told AAP.
"That's what he was hoping for. He was hoping to get punitive damages because that could take him up into the millions.
"They took his deposition, but after he got on there and told a bunch of lies he dropped the case because he thought he'd incriminate himself with the Australian investigation."
Watson's Alabama lawyer Brett Bloomston has dismissed the insurance money theory, saying Tina's insurance policies were worth only a "measly" amount and her father, not Watson, was the beneficiary.
Mr Valeska laughed that off, saying: "Gabe didn't know that. Gabe thought it was coming to him. He actually went to get the insurance money according to our witnesses."


Tina in her wedding gown

Watson currently sits in Los Angeles' 77th Street police station jail awaiting extradition to Alabama where Mr Valeska hopes to put Watson behind bars for life.
The 77th Street facility is located in Watts, a south-central neighbourhood that is home to some of the city's most notorious and violent gangs.
His cellmates would run the gamut of criminals, from drunks to gangbangers and murderers. Watson, who spent 18 months serving a manslaughter conviction in Queensland for Tina's death, will be in the LA jail for up to a week as Alabama authorities wait to escort him back to Birmingham.

Mr Valeska said California authorities had told him Watson would have to appear in court in LA, possibly on Monday or Tuesday, before he is extradited to Alabama, however, a LA police media spokesman rejected that on Friday. Alabama could come and pick Watson up whenever they liked, the LAPD spokesman said.
"It's not our collar. It's not our case," said the LAPD spokesman, who declined to be named.
"We're just providing him a cot until he is transported to Alabama. He's just camping out here until he gets transported".

It was news to Mr Valeska, who said if that was the case it would still take a number of days to organise officers to fly from Alabama to LA to escort Watson back.
"We were led to believe he had to have a hearing," Mr Valeska said.
"We have been talking to them about this for a month."
The confusion is just another twist in what has been a bizarre, seven year saga to find out what happened to 26-year-old bride, Tina.



Watson Abe is a citizen of the U.S., who had killed his wife on a diving honeymoon holiday on the Great Barrier Reef while on honeymoon in Australia. It is believed that he could face the death sentence in his home country after he was released from an Australian prison and deported back to the U.S. Gabe Watson, dubbed the 'Honeymoon Killer' by the Australian media, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of his wife of 11 days during a 2003 scuba diving trip. Like a freak of nature, a dramatic image shot by an unsuspecting diver showed 26-year-old Tina Watson's body on the sea bed as other divers frantically swam to her aid. Probably, Abe had never contemplated that the body might be discovered so soon, it is a vast body of water after all and the body of his wife could have been lost forever. While looking for it could have been likened to a case of looking for a pin in a haystack.

Officials in Queensland had initially charged Watson with murder, arguing he killed his wife by turning off her air supply and holding her underwater.
But Watson pleaded guilty to a lesser charge last year in an Australian court and was today freed after completing just an 18-month sentence.
He was taken into immigration custody where he will remain until officials are convinced he will not face the death penalty if sent home to Alabama.
Australia is a staunch opponent of the death penalty and is seeking assurances Watson will not face capital charges if he is returned to the pro-death penalty state, which wants to try him again over his wife's death.

Tina's parent

After being informed by Tina Watson's family that flowers and gifts were repeatedly being vandalized or disappearing from the grave site, even when chained down, Sergeant Flinn investigated. On hidden surveillance videos, he saw Gabe Watson removing them with bolt cutters and putting them into the trash, which Flinn then showed to media.


During the inquest into her Tina's death, Queensland coroner David Glasgow said a possible motive for the killing was her modest life insurance policy.
Freed: Gabe Watson, who pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of his wife Tina, is taken into immigration custody at Brisbane Airport. Extradition? Australian authorities are seeking assurances from Alabama that they will not seek the death penalty if Watson is returned there. A spokesman for the Department of Immigration and Citizenship said Watson will be held at a detention centre until Australia receives assurances he will not face the death penalty.

Alabama Attorney General Troy King has said he believed Watson devised a plot to kill his wife on their honeymoon, which would give the state jurisdiction to charge him. Mr King has argued there are no international standards on double jeopardy that prevent the U.S. state trying him again over the death.
Last month, October, 2010 a jury met in Birmingham, Alabama, to decide whether to indict Watson in his wife's death. The decision was not made public. Under Australia's Extradition Act, a person cannot be deported to face prosecution on a capital charge unless there is an assurance the death penalty will not be imposed.

In September, Queensland Attorney General Cameron Dick said Mr King had promised him Watson would not be executed. But on Wednesday, Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said Australia was still in discussions with the U.S. government over what charges he might face.
He said: 'If it is reasonably foreseeable that there is a real risk that an individual will face the death penalty if returned, Australia will generally require assurances from the receiving country that the death penalty will not be carried out.'
Adrian Braithwaite, representing Watson, said he had asked for a temporary visa so he could be released from the detention centre during the negotiations.


ABE WATSON, the "Honeymoon killer"

Don Rothwell, a specialist in international law at The Australian National University, said the country was taking its international obligations on human rights seriously.

'Watson is in a sort of twilight zone because he's not an Australian, Australia really doesn't have any interest in him any longer, he's an American citizen, his residency is in the U.S.'
In 2008, nearly five years after Tina drowned, the coroner found there was sufficient evidence to charge Watson with her death. Last year (2009) Watson - who had remarried - travelled to Australia to face trial and began his sentence in a Queensland jail. Mr Braithwaite said he had been eager to return to the U.S. to see his new wife, but was now having second thoughts.

'He doesn't want to go back if there's a risk that there's a needle stuck up his arm,' he said.



*Except where otherwise quoted, most materials for this piece was sourced from- Nine News, Daily Mail Reporter etc