PAGE VERY WIDE DUE TO TRYING TO FIT LARGE TABLE ON IT

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GABE'S STORY

After the dive, it has been alleged by a number of people, mostly the Queensland Police, that Gabe gave many different versions of what happened. They claimed that he gave 16 different versions! However, the evidence in statements made to Police and the inquest do not support this claim. The Police have never actually provided any evidence to support their claims. In addition, the Coroner never asked this question.

Comment: I believe that all the stories told by Gabe and as recorded or later related by people he spoke to are sufficiently similar (at least those told when in Australia) to show that he told the same story, just that the memory and re-interpretation of the story is not 100 percent correct. From my reading of the transcript of the inquest, they are all almost identical, with only very minor differences that are really irrelevant. In addition, remember the game Chinese Whispers where person A tells a short story to person B who then tells person C who tells D etc and when D repeats what they heard it inevitably bears little resemblance to the original story. Well, the differences between what Gabe told the Police in his two interviews and what each person he spoke to later reported to the Police and at the inquest about the incident seems to me to fall into this. The unreliability of human recollection, especially during times of duress, is quite high.

An example is where Tommy Thomas (Tina's Dad) and his daughter Alanda, both listened to the same phone call from Gabe where he explained what had happened. Both their recollections of this are almost identical, with one exception. While Tommy said that Tina used her thumb to give "thumbs up" signal to Gabe when on the wreck, Alanda said she used her thumb to indicate to go back to the descent/ascent line. This just shows how the same conversation can be interpreted or reported by different people.

The following table summarises what Gabe told each person as reported by them in statements to the Police or given at the Inquest. It also summarises each of the statements Gabe gave to Police.

Person

Gabe Watson

Gabe Watson

Gabe Watson

Wade Singleton

Wade Singleton

Stanley Stutz

Stanley Stutz

Uzi Barnai

David Lemsing

Paul Crocombe

Alana McMahon

Craig Haslett

Louise Johnstone-Forster

Craig Stephen

Tina Graves

Paula Snyder

Ken Snyder

Doug Milsap

Tom Jackson

Amanda Phillips

Tommy Thomas

Alanda Thomas

Kevin Moore

Craig Youngblood

Number

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

Date of record

22-Oct-03

22-Oct-03

27/10/2003

27/10/2003

21/11/2007

18/04/2007

22/10/2003

20/11/2007

22/11/2007

25/11/2007

28/11/2003

30/11/2007

30/11/2007

21/01/2008

22/01/2008

23/01/2008

23/01/2008

23/01/2008

24/01/2008

25/01/2008

25/01/2008

25/01/2008

25/01/2008

30/01/2008

When Recorded

Verbal Statement

Police Statement

Recorded Statement

As related by Campbell at inquest pg 62

Inquest

What he claims he saw - Recorded by Flynn US Cop

Statement to D/S Ian Taylor

Inquest

Inquest

Inquest

Inquest

Inquest

Inquest also 21/1/08

Inquest

Inquest

Statement not given to QLD till 24/4/07 but gave one to Flynn 3/8/06 Inquest

Inquest

Inquest

Inquest

Inquest

Inquest

Inquest

Inquest

Inquest

When told to them

On Spoilsport

On Spoilsport

in water

in water

On Spoilsport

On Spoilsport

On Spoilsport

On Spoilsport

Hotel

On Spoilsport

On Spoilsport and Police station

On Spoilsport

On Spoilsport

At funeral home

By phone from Australia

By phone from Australia

same time as her Dad

At gabe's parents place

By phone from Australia

Computer

Started beeping at about 5 feet

"Started beeping at a couple of feet "gas alarm""

Said he had problem with computer

had trouble with computer - thought he said battery was flat

"said computer did not work, reckons he saw screen and it was blank"

Issues with computer

Something went wrong with equipment so got out

Batteries

Opened battery compartment and swapped it around - but then says hooked transmitter part back to reg

"Asked Uzi for coin to open battery compartment took it out turned it around - had to wait till tanks filled to test, held computer next to it registered psi (shows he is referring to transmitter)"

Said he knew what it was but did not say batteries

Current

Strong current

A lot stronger than we feel comfortable

Was strong

Really strong

Stronger than expected

Descent

"Tina first, went to 40 feet left line, went slow pointing at things"

"weren't in a hurry, looking at fish, bubbles hitting his face, at about 25-28 ft (maybe) went across"

Went down to about 45 feet and went across to wreck

Went to 45 feet

go down 45 feet

down about 40 feet

On Wreck

Went out 30 yards (which he later said he meant feet)

Went out 20 feet

Went to wreck and swam along

had not gone too far

Swam along wreck about 40 to 50 feet

30 feet from line (but was related as if 30 feet down)

realised current was very strong

moved away from anchor - maybe 40 feet

Tina Worried

Used thumb to indicate wanted to go back to rope

Used thumb to indicate wanted to go back to rope

Tina signalled wanted to turn around

Tina signalled she wanted to turn around

Tina was significantly in distress before Gabe came back to her but his initial statement does not say this

Statement was very basic with little detail

Tina panicked

Tina signalled she wasn't comfortable

She sort of panicked

Tina panicked because she was overweighted -

Tina panicked

agreed to turn back to line

Tina panicked

Tina motioned to him thumbs up but later said it was thumbs back to anchor

"Tina motioned wanted to go up, back to the ropes"

Tina signalled to go back up and then panicked

Tina BCD

"Took her hand, she quit swimming and sinking - let go of hand also indicated to Tina to inflate, appeared to"

"Took her hand, she was vertical, she was dropping - let go of hand also indicated to Tina to inflate, appeared to"

Gabe grabbed her hamd

took her hand

Demonstrated to Tina to inflate BCD

Tried to get her to inflate but she was sinking

grabbed hold of BCD

as reaching to grab hold she knocked him - must have had her hand

started back

Still sinking

Grabbed BCD and kept swimming to line - she was not swimming

I went down ah and grabbed a hold of her BC and started swimming to line

Tried to swim back against current to line

Gabe held hand as they swam back

I tried to hold her but she got so heavy

She was too heavy

"She was too heavy and lost grip on her, tried to lift her to the surface"

was not getting anywhere and turned back to help

20 feet from anchor she was sinking - showed her to squeeze inflator and she did same

grabbed her hand and started back

People on line

Could see people

Could see line

Mask

Hand came across face pulled mask back and it filled

her hand hit my mask um it knocked my mask sideways

Tried to grab reg and mask

She relaxed and then tried to grab reg and mask

Wrestled with her

She tried to grab reg and he grabbed it back then she grabbed mask

Tina reached out to him and knocked his mask off and regulator out - he later says it was knocked skew-whiff

Knocked off his mask

"reached for his mask and reg and removed it, second time latched them out - third time says during the panic I could not control her and she started flailing - she knocked "

knocked mask loose and regulator

she knocked his mask off

knocked off his mask while she tried to grab his reg

she reached up and knocked his mask loose and it filled with water

she started grabbing at him and when he turned she knocked his mask off

she had knocked his mask and reg off

Knocked his mask off

Fixing

Let go of her to fix

Let go of her to fix

Let go to fix

By the time he cleared he could not see her

Cleared and saw Tina falling backwards

Pushed her away

got reg back in mouth and cleared and then mask

fixed

Let go of hand to fix

Let go of her to fix

let go to fix

let go to fix

cleared mask

Regulator

"Then realised reg missing, grabbed Air 2,"

"Then realised reg missing, grabbed Air 2,"

Used Ocky

She grabbed my regulator

Tried to grab his reg

knocked mask loose and regulator

did not mention

fixed

Order

Mask then Reg

Mask then Reg

Not mentioned

Mask then ocky

Reg then mask

mask then reg

Tina sinking

"Turned back, Tina was sinking, eyes open, was not moving at all "

"turned back around and at this point she was going down um, I don't know if ah if she was still kicking or not ah but she was looking up had both her arms out you know reached, stretched up almost like looking at me reaching her arms up to grab "

She sank

One minute she was there and then she went down

"She was too heavy, she's gone straight to the bottom"

"She's gone, she's gone"

"Did not say he pushed her away, she wrote that in diary as how she felt"

Saw her sinking away was not sure if she was breathing and eyes open

by the time he fixed she was descending 10 feet below

She sank - order as given at inquest appears to be included with sinking

she was being pushed down and he was pushed up

She had sunk 30 feet

She was about 10 feet below him and sinking

by the time he fixed she was below him and sinking too fast

she had drifted away

she pulled away by current

What Gabe did

Swam down a bit

I upended myself you know head first - she was she was out of arms reach

I could not help her

Made decision to ascend to get help

Split second descision to get help

Ascended

Do I go after her or to the surface

Decided to go to surface

Split decision to go up

tried to swim down to help but ears hurt

surfaced to get help

Ascent

"Ascended, saw some people at 20 feet, tried to tell them"

"I probably never swam so fast in my life, saw people went to them shouting at them but no reaction"

I went up

Came out of the water

Immediately surfaced

Go straight to surface

Ruptured ear drum

Rushed up as fast as he could

Ripping off gear as he went

Ripping off gear as he went

Ears

Told his Mum on phone while she was there and then told her

Said ruptured ear drum

busted or ruptured or some type of pain so could not get to her

told he hurt ears but did not explain

As you can see, virtually each of the stories Gabe told (as related by others) is identical to each other. The only differences are generally minor and inconsequential. The prime difference is that Gabe did not mention hurting his ears in his statements and his story to Tina's family about ripping off his gear as he ascended. Click here for the next part of this article.