Watson Murder Case - Discussion

[Dadvocate]

Ayisha said:

That may or may not be true. I believe all that we know is that he was suing either the travel insurance company or travel agency, I can't recall which. He dropped the case and cited something about not incriminating himself.

I am wary of any news article for giving all the facts, but this one at least claims that Gabe Watson missed out on getting any insurance payout at all because he chose the wrong policy among other things.

From the article linked above (my bolds for effect):

The difficulty with this as a theory [that Gabe pressured his wife to up the insurance coverage and make him the benefactor] is that Gabe was never the beneficiary. Her father received the money on Tina's death. Thomas explains the contradiction by saying Gabe thought he was the beneficiary. Thomas says he told his daughter to inform Watson that a change in beneficiaries had taken place.

The complexities in the Thomas argument on motive quickly become so involved they appear unlikely. The undisputed evidence of the Crown shows that as the young couple packed their bags for Townsville, Gabe Watson refused to take out additional insurance offered by an insurance broker, saying he would review the position after their honeymoon.

Thomas's response is that to purchase such an insurance policy was too obvious a ploy and would have aroused suspicion.

Tina and Gabe Watson did have a joint travel policy. The benefit was $10,000 by way of an accidental death plus a benefit of $25,000 if death was caused by a common carrier, such as an airline.

However, no benefit was ever paid as the policy did not cover death while scuba diving. During the investigation, Gabe Watson said he thought this was covered.

The point is that Watson has not shown that he put a great deal of thought into this so-called murder plot for money set in the US if he never even got a payout on the insurance that he took out himself, let alone never achieving getting himself noted as the beneficiary on his wife’s employment policy as the argument goes.

So it was “too obvious” and then not so obvious at all because the one policy he did manage to get was utterly wrong for the circumstances anyway. He could have tried to pursue it but 1) it would have come to no avail and 2) it could have had a prejudicial effect for him later on.

It appears that Gabe did withdraw his attempts to receive money under pressure from his lawyers and this was very prudent advice if indeed this information is accurate. I don’t see where the prosecution can go with this unless there is an ace up their sleeve. If Watson is guilty of this plot and execution, I hope it is unambiguous and squarely tied to the sovereign shores of the USA.

On your second point regarding the perception of both of them having insurance, we can see that he tried to get some coverage for both of them. We also know that Tina apparently never did put Gabe on her insurance AND if Gabe Watson put her on his insurance (as a salesmen in his family business, right?) it could end up being public record that Gabe officially had his wife covered for his part but that his wife did not have him covered. Murder for money is looking like a slippery slope in my opinion. Of course this is coming with only some of the facts through newsprint.

A lot depends on what Gabe left as evidence in the US if he left anything at all and whether or not a jury is going to be willing to accept fanciful tales of murder plots if the hard evidence is as weak as it currently appears.

Cheers!

 

[jester1226]

Or repeatedly removing flowers off Tina's grave and when discovering eventually that he could not, to go to get bolt cutters and cut them off, caught on video. It's all a little different than one might expect.
.

Did you ever think that he was removing them due to being a bit upset at the ones who were putting them there?

 

[jester1226]

If so, the entire jurisdictional issue blows up and the case ought to be dismissed right there. It would certainly lead to an interesting grounds for an appeal at the very least if Gabe Watson were convicted of say aggravated murder or something along those lines based on a plot that happened after they left the US.

This case remains interesting after all this time.

Cheers!

So, what you are saying is he should go in too court and say he planned it while on vacation! Genious!!!

 

[mike_s]

Did you ever think that he was removing them due to being a bit upset at the ones who were putting them there?

her family was the ones putting them there. I see no reason to be upset at them loving her. or to defend him for doing it...

Ayisha was right. He was caught on video by the police department destroying the flowers and then when they cabled them down, getting bolt cutters. The police released the video. it was widely broadcasted by the news.

 

[ScubaSteve]

her family was the ones putting them there. I see no reason to be upset at them loving her. or to defend him for doing it...

Ayisha was right. He was caught on video by the police department destroying the flowers and then when they cabled them down, getting bolt cutters. The police released the video. it was widely broadcasted by the news.

But that seems the sane thing to do

 

[Dadvocate]

Jester said:

So, what you are saying is he should go in too court and say he planned it while on vacation! Genious!!!

I can’t tell by our chosen emoticons if I am to take this farcical reading as tongue and cheek or if you actually think that this summary of yours accurately represents my position.

Since I can’t tell for sure, I’ll simply say that I in no way think this is a wise strategy for his defense. In fact you’d be hard-pressed to find anything in my post that even remotely suggested such a ridiculous notion, certainly not the part you quoted for effect.

Mike said:

her family was the ones putting them there. I see no reason to be upset at them loving her. or to defend him for doing it...

Of course you can say that you see no reason for either the former or the latter, but you are also not privy to all of the information, just like the rest of us.

What little we do see leaves at least some room for speculation. If there are hard feelings on Gabe’s part for being called a murderer he might well lash out in these strange ways. You can choose to discount this and you can choose to take media depictions of the events at face value, but don’t kid yourself that this provides a complete view of the facts, at least not yet. Your estimation could change when the details come to light.

Cheers!

 

[Valwood1]

The August 2011 issue of "Undercurrent" has an article quoting Dr. Carl Edmonds that says the wife's death has many of the usual signs of a panic-induced dive accident.

 

[spoolin01]

The kind of panic that would result from having your air turned off unexpectedly, or the panic that arises elsewise? Surely Dr. Carl could spot the difference in an instant, third hand.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

The kind of panic that would result from having your air turned off unexpectedly, or the panic that arises elsewise? Surely Dr. Carl could spot the difference in an instant, third hand.

Amazing how many people have come to all sorts of conclusions Seems to me many who are doing so have had a lot less access to information and are far less qualified than Dr Edmunds. He was given access to the real evidence and asked his opinion by authorities as part of the investigation. His opinions are sought because he is professional, unbiased, non-emotional unfazed by media hype or emotional campaigns.

I am afraid that if Tina had been an overweight, middle aged woman on a dive holiday and not a lovely young newly wed on her honeymoon the media would not have been interested. Without the media flogging this IMHO there would have been a better chance that justice would have been possible for all involved.

 

[Ayisha]

The August 2011 issue of "Undercurrent" has an article quoting Dr. Carl Edmonds that says the wife's death has many of the usual signs of a panic-induced dive accident.

Let's think about what those "usual signs" of panic might be - When found, Tina's mask was on, her regulator was in her mouth, her air was on, her equipment was all in place, and she was seen shortly before falling backwards with her arms out.

Sorry, what usual signs of panic do we see in Tina's case??