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

[dmoore19]

I suppose his difficult past may explain his lack of emotion. But is that really that big in the story either for or against him? It explains his calm demeanor afterwards but doesn't begin to prove or disprove it was a murder or an accident.

It didn't give me enough information to decide one way or another. I suppose that's what CBS wanted.

 

[Thalassamania]

I think Swain did it, but I don't really think it was proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

 

[Ayisha]

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).

Hi Ken. Thank you for your insight as always. It's much appreciated. Just a minor correction in the timeline as stated by David. They swam over to the wrecks and David left Shelley (where she was later found) at about 5 minutes, not 10 minutes. Then David toured the wrecks and went on to the reef, came back to the wrecks and surfaced at about 35 minutes.

Whether Shelley's time of death was 8 minutes or anytime up to 35 minutes, David cannot be placed out of the water. Her body was recovered by Christian only a couple of minutes after David surfaced, so the theory of a shorter or longer time frame until her time of death seems like a moot point. Could the 800 psi (600? 1200?) have lasted her beyond the 35 minutes at that depth and could she have died in the 2 minutes or so after David surfaced before she was found? It doesn't seem so and the defence has not named anyone else as a suspect (except the phantom diver who David originally claimed may have attacked Shelley, but there were no other boats moored in the remote area and David changed his story) and has not claimed that her air consumption could have provided her over 35 minutes at that depth for approximately 800 psi of air.

 

[Jersey]

I suppose his difficult past may explain his lack of emotion. But is that really that big in the story either for or against him? It explains his calm demeanor afterwards but doesn't begin to prove or disprove it was a murder or an accident.

It didn't give me enough information to decide one way or another. I suppose that's what CBS wanted.

No, his family history was but a lurid tangent ("Son Kills Mother" "Father Was Trans-Gendered") and not necessary. I found the intimate letters more interesting, timely and incriminating taken in conjunction with damage to the dive gear. Mr. Swains explaination of them, including calling them 'not love letters' struck me as a bit disingenuous.

I was in and out of the room and perhaps I missed it, but I would have liked more info on Shelley's dive education and experiences.

 

[Teamcasa]

Here's the thing about news stories. They never get it 100% right plus it very difficult to jam hundreds of hours of testimony into a 60 minute TV show. Some stuff is just not going to make the cut.

To me, I was troubled by David's statement that he and Shelley rarely buddied up and that he would not say it is a fundamental part of diver safety. I was concerned by his relationship with the Doctor, the letters ect. His demeanor when answering questions was also off-putting.

However, none of that is clear evidence that he killed his wife. Responsible for her death? Maybe, but I saw (and have not read any) real hard evidence that he killed her.

 

[dmoore19]

Here's the thing about news stories. They never get it 100% right plus it very difficult to jam hundreds of hours of testimony into a 60 minute TV show. Some stuff is just not going to make the cut.

To me, I was troubled by David's statement that he and Shelley rarely buddied up and that he would not say it is a fundamental part of diver safety. I was concerned by his relationship with the Doctor, the letters ect. His demeanor when answering questions was also off-putting.

However, none of that is clear evidence that he killed his wife. Responsible for her death? Maybe, but I saw (and have not read any) real hard evidence that he killed her.

The fact that he was found guilty of being responsible for her death is a different matter even though at face value they are one in the same. She is dead whether it is because he didn't do his duties as her buddy or if he turned the valve off on her tank. I don't know anything about his wrongful death trial but it seems to me the decision of the jurors probably boils down to not fulfilling his duty as a dive buddy.

Her parents seemed very bitter about her death which I can understand. I got the feeling that they probably didn't much care for him to start with. I would be easy to take a dislike to somebody and seek some sort of revenge. That is what I think the civil trial was about.

While it may be possible to find the man guilty I still don't think, from what I know, I could have found him guilty. I still have problems thinking people are capable of doing things like this. But then I wasn't in the court room. I guess I would have made a better juror for the defence than the prosecution.

 

[BladesRobinson]

I think it is important to understand that CBS is in the business of making money and the TV show "48 Hours Mystery" is in the business of telling a story that is interesting to TV viewers.

If the "48 Hours Mystery" producers only presented the evidence that would cause most to determine that Swain was 100% guilty, it likely wouldn't be too interesting and would certainly fall short of being a "mystery." The same would hold true if they only presented the side from Swain and his two children.

To create a "mystery" I believe the producers did a great job of presenting a story that leaves TV viewers wondering and wavering about 50/50 as to guilt/innocence. That's show business and that is why they are good at what they do.

All of the facts were not presented to the viewers and some of the facts strongly support the guilty verdict. As one forum member posted, whether the victim died 10 minutes into the dive or 20 minutes into the dive is not really relevant when the only other person underwater at the time was Swain. I also understand that there were some e-mails from Swain to this "soulmate" back home stating that his situation would be changing soon. These e-mails were allegedly sent shortly the death of his wife.

The other thing that is really difficult to guess is how an underwater struggle might alter one's air consumption rate.

The judge likely didn't want to hear the debate about air consumption because it wasn't relevant. Only one other diver was in the water when the victim died and that person was found GUILTY of murder.

If anyone cares to view the program online, check out:
Shelley's Last Breath - 48 Hours - CBS News

 

[vladimir]

I don't know anything about his wrongful death trial but it seems to me the decision of the jurors probably boils down to not fulfilling his duty as a dive buddy.

I also don't know anything about the wrongful death suit, but I would be surprised if it hinged on his shirking his buddy duties. Otherwise we would have heard about dozens of such verdicts, and I am not aware of any.

 

[dmoore19]

I also don't know anything about the wrongful death suit, but I would be surprised if it hinged on his shirking his buddy duties. Otherwise we would have heard about dozens of such verdicts, and I am not aware of any.

True, but his being an Instructor and his attitude about leaving his buddy make me think this may have played a major role in the verdict.

 

[SadiesMom]

I think it is important to understand that CBS is in the business of making money and the TV show "48 Hours Mystery" is in the business of telling a story that is interesting to TV viewers.

That is correct. That is why both Dateline and 48 Hours were interested in the case from the start - because there was never any clearcut way to determine David's guilt - in a situation where his innocence was supposed to be presumed.

I also understand that there were some e-mails from Swain to this "soulmate" back home stating that his situation would be changing soon. These e-mails were allegedly sent shortly the death of his wife.

Really? This is the first I've heard of this and I know David and his family fairly well. I don't claim to have been aware of 100% of the evidence, but I'm completely unaware of these alleged e-mails. Where did you get this information? I'd really love to see a source for this. Maybe I'm just out of the loop...

The judge likely didn't want to hear the debate about air consumption because it wasn't relevant. Only one other diver was in the water when the victim died and that person was found GUILTY of murder.

Actually, at the time SHE (i.e., the judge) ruled that David's expert's testimony on the air consumption wasn't admissible because he was a Ph.D., not an M.D., David had not yet been found guilty of murder. So if your supposition was the case, then her decision to rule out his expert's testimony would have been highly prejudicial. Perhaps had she allowed David's expert's testimony about air consumption and David's psychologist's testimony (also because he was a Ph.D., not an M.D.) to be heard by the jurors, he would NOT have been found guilty of murder.

There was also a great deal of information left out of the 48 Hours piece - the botched, substandard autopsy (standard tests any coroner in the US would do in an aquatic death plus not following up on findings like the 22% blockage in the descending coronary artery with a tissue sample to see if Shelley had *had* a heart attack), some of Shelley's medical history that could have been relevant, the fact that the dive gear wasn't stored in police custody, but in the custody of a dive shop operator who had a vested interest in making sure that there was nothing wrong with the air in the rented tanks - again - something that is not standard in the US because there's no way to safeguard the integrity of the equipment's condition and other a few more things.

In any case, there is an appeal in the works - and there is another much longer thread on this subject. In that thread, an attorney who works on Tortola has said that he would not be at all surprised if David's verdict were overturned on the appeal. Several other attorneys have expressed that opinion to me as well, after hearing the judge's summation to the jurors. Not being an attorney myself, I don't know the legal issues as to why they feel that way - I only hope that they are correct.