VeryRusty,
Your post that I quoted(in my previous post), got me thinking about all of this again. You are the first person that I'm aware of, who has posted here on SB, who actually knows Gabe. My opinion of him is based on reading copious amounts of material and watching the TV specials. Your first hand opinion of Gabe is the same as my second hand opinion. Both are opinions, not character assassination. He seems to do a good job of that all by himself.
Strictly from a scuba diving point of view, everything that went wrong and tragically took Tina's life is explainable. Nearly all new divers overstate their experience and ability. The industry is plagued with lack of good training and with promoting advanced dives to divers with a lack of experience. Add that to Tina not being honest on the Medical Release, being grossly overweighted, no checkout dives, passive panic, inability to equalize, overbreathing, incompetence, not being familiar with new equipment, and flight vs fight reaction to adversity, all add up to a tragic loss.
From a human mistake point of view, Eye witness accounts underwater are suspect with no way to be sure of who is who, how far away people were due to refraction and 3 dimensional perspective.
Gabe's unusual personality explains much of the cowardly and bizarre behavior.
Finally, it sure seems like a premeditated diving murder would have been a lot easier to pull off without the huge trip to Australia and the GBR. Why not pick a more primitive place known for wall diving, strong currents and law enforcement with little resource and ability to investigate as a crime?
Closer to home, cheaper and easier to get to, Cozumel or Grand Cayman have Multi thousand foot walls where a missing diver would never be found.
I'm not trying to stick up for Gabe. It is just that there is SO much doubt, well beyond reasonable doubt, that this was just a tragic diving accident and not a murder.
