Analysis of Gabe Watson’s first interview with police

Tina and Gabe Watson

Christina “Tina” Watson was 26 year old when she died while scuba diving with her husband Gabe on their honeymoon in Queensland, Australia, on October 22, 2003.

On October 23, 2003 Gabe Watson was interviewed by an australian detective about his wife Tina’s suspect drowning, during the interview his mother was close to him:

Gabe Watson: Tina’s gone down, I need help. Tina’s gone down, I need help.

Gabe Watson: The doctor said, you know, I did everything I could to save her but we lost her.

Gabe Watson: I just can’t help but think that… that the fight against the current is what allowed whatever thing took place that caused her to either blackout or whatever and sink.

Note that he doesn’t call his wife by her name. This is distancing language.

Note the presence of a pause to think.

Note the word “fight”. This could be “Leakage”. Leakage is the inadvertent release of information relevant to the investigation. Gabe Watson opens to the possibility that a “fight” took place before his wife Tina’s drowning.

Gabe Watson: There is nothing in our thing about how to get somebody.

Gabe Watson: I started to go down just a couple of feet under the water, my computer beeped at me… uhm (…) He got me a coin, I pulled the battery out, swapped it around, hooked it back up and I said, you know, don’t tell anybody, but I had my battery in backwards. So I knew without any doubt that that was the problem.

Gabe Watson: She had both arms up, she was looking up before I realised she was going faster than I can catch up with her, you know, is then that I decided “Well, I’m going to go get somebody that maybe knows what to do”.

Note that he doesn’t call his wife by her name.

Gabe at first speaks at the past tense “She had both arms up, she was looking up before I realised she was going faster than” but unexpectedly he shifts at the present tense “I can’t catch up with her”. When someone is speaking of an event in the past, and the memory is in play, it is expected that the subject will use past tense language. Present tense language is deemed “unreliable”. Did he ever try to catch up with Tina? I don’t think so.

Note “You know, is then that I decided: Well I’m going to go get somebody that maybe knows what to do”. Gabe’s language reflects his behaviour, he lost precious minutes before calling for help.

“then” is a temporal lacunae, Gabe is skipping over time withholding information. 

Gabe Watson: I remember shouthing through my regulator: “Tina, Tina, Tina”, tapping’em, I know the guy turned around and looked at me and I was pointing, you know, where she went down.

“I remember” is unnecessary wording whereas in truthful accounts people can only tell us what they remember. This may be an indication that Gabe may have told previously what was not from his experiential memory.

Note “I know the guy turned around and looked at me”. Why does he has a need to add “I know”? Why does he refer to him as “the guy” and not as “a guy”? Did he see him before? Was Gabe Watson in a state of alert? Why?

Gabe Watson: Pretty much just rocketed to the top, you know, I just swam up to the top, I probably never swam so fast in my life. I’m amazed that I didn’t end up with the bends or something.

In “Pretty much just rocketed to the top”, the pronoun “I” is missing, a dropped pronoun means no commitment to the action described.

Note also “just”, a dependent word used in comparison. “just” swam up without helping Tina?

Note “I probably never swam so fast in my life. I’m amazed that I didn’t end up with the bends or something” is unnecessary to say. Only someone with a guilty knowledge has a psychological need to be seen in a positive light. 

Gabe Watson: In the back of my mind I was thinking these people could see us or at least think something was going on.

What was going on? A fight?

Analysis Conclusion:

Deception Indicated

Gabe Watson was initially charged by Queensland authorities with his wife Tina’s murder. He pleaded guilty of manslaughter and was subsequently sentenced to a term of imprisonment for this charge. He was then charged by Alabama authorities with Tina’s murder and put on trial. On  February 23, 2012, Alabama judge Tommy Nail dismissed the murder case due to lack of evidence.