48 HOURS MYSTERY to feature the David Swain underwater murder on Saturday

[BladesRobinson]

IADRS member and Dive Rescue International corporate trainer Jeff Morgan will appear on CBS News' "48 Hours" on Saturday, May 8 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. He will speak about the underwater murder that took place in 1999 in Tortola BVI.

A preview can be found at:
48 Hours Preview: Shelley's Last Breath - 48 Hours - CBS News


.......................

TV show examines scuba-diving murder of former Thayer Academy principal
By Dennis Tatz
The Patriot Ledger


The murder of former Thayer Academy administrator Shelley Tyre will be featured on the CBS program “48 Hours Mystery” at 10 p.m. Saturday.

In October, a nine-person jury in Tortola, the largest of the British Virgin Islands in the eastern Caribbean, convicted Tyre’s husband, David Swain of Jamestown, R.I., of killing Tyre while they were scuba diving in 1999 during a vacation.

Following a three-week trial, a judge ordered Swain to serve a 25-year sentence for the slaying.

Tyre’s death was originally ruled an accident.

The case was reopened and criminal charges were eventually filed after Tyre’s parents, Richard and Lisa Tyre of Canton, won a wrongful-death suit against their son-in-law in a Rhode Island civil court in 2006.

The episode of the CBS show is titled “Shelley’s Last Breath.” It features first-time interviews with Swain and children from his first marriage.

Tyre was the middle school principal at Thayer Academy. She commuted to the private school in Braintree from her home with Swain in Jamestown.

She resigned from the Thayer staff shortly before her death. In an interview with The Patriot Ledger last year, Tyre’s father said his 46-year-old daughter left to take an administrative post at a private school closer to her home, hoping to save her marriage.

The couple had been married for six years.

Prosecutors asserted that Swain, then 53, wanted his wife dead so he could pursue a romantic relationship with another woman. The prenuptial agreement between Tyre and Swain prevented Swain from getting any money in a divorce, according to the civil suit.

Tyre had given her husband money to start a dive shop business, her father said.

Swain’s perceived lack of remorse after his wife’s death reportedly made Tyre’s parents suspicious. They hired an attorney, whose investigation determined that their daughter was murdered.

 

[Teamcasa]

In the re-enactment, it was taped off of Catalina and the divers are two locals from the club I'm in.

 

[Jeff Toorish]

I'm sure the members of the dive community who participated did a terrific job but as a journalist, I am extremely skeptical of any story produced by 48 hours, perhaps the most sensational of all the network TV news magazines.

Jeff

 

[PvtStash]

Thanks for the posting.

 

[dmoore19]

+1 on what PvtStash said

 

[Teamcasa]

I'm sure the members of the dive community who participated did a terrific job but as a journalist, I am extremely skeptical of any story produced by 48 hours, perhaps the most sensational of all the network TV news magazines.

Jeff

I'm with you there Jeff, I just want to see my friends act! They have no idea what if any of the footage taped will actually make it on air. They aren't complaining - no pay, but a real nice day of free diving and tons-o-food!

 

[Tricia]

Wow! Just watched it in its entirety from the CBS website. I had read the story on SB (there's another thread that discusses the case), but it's always interesting to see the real people. Having said that, as Jeff pointed out, it was a bit sensational, to say the least.

From the legal side: I think Swain has a good chance at an appeal, given that the judge excluded the defense expert on Tyre's air consumption. Not sure why he excluded it, as the prosecutor would have had the chance to cross-examine the expert.

Trish

 

[dmoore19]

I DVR'd it and just finished watching it. Kind of disappointing for me. I guess maybe I expected something with more information when in fact I read more about what happened here on SB. Too bad CBS didn't do more with it. There was little to no information about the incident or evidence. Still it was a scuba story so I had to watch it. Thanks to the OP for bringing it to my attention.

 

[Ken Kurtis]

Kind of disappointing for me. I guess maybe I expected something with more information when in fact I read more about what happened here on SB. Too bad CBS didn't do more with it. There was little to no information about the incident or evidence.

I was rather disappointed too, especially having seen the NBC Dateline piece (two hours long) where I thought they did a much better job of presenting things.

As many of you know, I do forensic consulting with the LA County Coroner and also 9separately) serve as an expert witness. And experts don't always agree. Jeff Morgan and I are both involved in a case where we're taking opposite points of view.

That being said I think CBS left out a key piece of evidence that needs to be explained: The fin stuck tip-first in the sand. In my mind, this is where Swain's story really falls apart.

One of the things I look for when trying to figure these things out is to take whatever the story is, and see if there are facts or pieces of evidence that don't fit the story and then see if I can find explanations for them. The fin-in-the-sand certainly doesn't fit Swains' story and is, IMHO, a major red flag.

There were only two people in the water at the time, Swain and Shelley. So one of them HAD to have stuck the fin in the sand. (Although not covered in the program, Bill Oliver has demonstrated that the ONLY way that fin could have been in the sand tip-first is by human interaction.)

The notion that was floated previously that Shelley stuck the fin in the sand herself as a marker (and then kicked around with one fin) simply defies logic. The idea that Swain staged it there to make it "look" like an accident has, to me, more credibility (which is not necessarily proof).

I think Shelley's air consumption (800psi) is a red herring. I'm not sure how we know for a fact that she started with 3000psi (maybe it was 2800psi???), but let's assume she did. The prosecution is positing an air consumption rate of 100psi/minute so they say it shows Shelley died 8 minutes into the dive, at a time when Swain was on the wreck. The defense says their expert, who wasn't allowed to testify, can show that Shelley had an air consumption of 50psi, so it was over 15 minutes into the dive and Swain couldn't have done it.

What bugs me about that whole scenario is that Swain was underwater for 30 minutes. Who's to say this didn't happen towards the END of the dive? You need to firmly estbalish time of death after Swain was back on the boat to positively exclude him and I don't think that's been demonstrated.

I think tthe prosectioin's theory (and video) of Swain swimming up to Shelley from behind and turning her air off is too complex for it to have happened that way. First of all, it takes 2-3 turns to turn the air off. Then you've got time left (as much as 7 breaths) for all the air in the hoses to be breathed down. Your victim might get away in that overall time frame and expose you.

Instead, it would have been much easier to wait until the victim exhales, yank the reg from their mouth, hang on to it, prevent them from getting their octo, and wait for them to drown. Much quicker, too.

The other thing that's bugged me is that Swain testified (I think) that he and Shelley swam down the anchor line, then swam over to the wrecks, that he left her after about 10 minutes and continued on to the reef, and that when he finished his dive he came back to the same general area, glacned at the wrecks and didn't see Shelley or her bubbles, and then swam up the anchor line.

IMHO, there's a flaw in this story (if I have it correct).

When Shelley was found by Christian Thwaites after Swain was back on the boat, Twaites says he swam down the anchor line, saw the fin sticking in the sand, swam over the the wrecks, and found Shelley.

So if Swain's story is true, how come HE didn't see the fin sticking in the sand on his way back to the anchor line at the end of his dive? He said he looked towards the wrecks for Shelley. I believe he would have seen the fin had it been placed there by Shelley.

I'm also bothered by the mask. Swain calmly says Shelley probably panicked. But when you panic, you likely rip the entire mask off your face and drop it. You don't pull the strap free and break a pin. And even if you do, you certainly don't also yank the snorkel mouthpiece from the snorkel tube. That's all more indicative of a violent struggle.

Anytime Swain has been asked about an inconsistency, he thinks about it for a moment and then simply shrugs and says, "I don't know." Personally, I think he DOES know. He's just not saying.

- Ken

 

[vladimir]

Instead, it would have been much easier to wait until the victim exhales, yank the reg from their mouth, hang on to it, prevent them from getting their octo, and wait for them to drown. Much quicker, too.- Ken

Thanks Ken. This will come in handy the next time I go diving with that blood-sucking harpy I made the mistake of marrying.