Mystery in the deep blue sea

Cindy Thomas: A 26-year-old girl who is on her honeymoon thinking that she's starting her whole life. And then, it's snatched away in an instant. How do you wrap your head around that?

Tina in a wedding dress on a Saturday, thinking herself the princess bride.

Less than four weeks later, she was being eulogized.

Dennis Murphy, Dateline NBC: When was the last time you two saw her?

Tommy Thomas: Her and Gabe had gotten on the elevator to leave the reception. And I grabbed her and I told her I loved her and I said, “Baby girl, go have the time of your life.” And I turned around and grabbed Gabe and said, “Take care of my baby girl.” And that's the last time I saw her.

Her best friend, Amanda, said goodbye to the girl she used to model with, vacation with, dish about boys with.

Dennis Murphy: You see just the way she looked?

Amanda Phillips: I see her the way she looked when we were just hanging out. I don't see her in her wedding dress. No make-up, no nothing. Just hanging out with a big smile on her face.

In the days following her death, Tina’s dad, Tommy, had called down to Australia to talk to the water police. He told an officer there named Glenn the brief details of Tina’s drowning that he'd learned from his son-in-law.

Tommy Thomas: And I asked Glenn if that sounded like what he was told. And instead of just telling me, “Yeah, it was a horrible accident.” He said, “Well, that's one thing that we'll look at."

Dennis Murphy: What did that tell you?

Tommy Thomas: It was kind of hard to catch it, but it was like these guys are concerned about something, you know? And I just wish they'd tell me. And I couldn't pin him down to anything. He wouldn't really tell me anything at that stage.

But there were some people who wanted to talk to Tommy in just the worst way, four people he didn't know, the veteran divers, the two American couples aboard the Spoilsport that week who were so taken by the young honeymooners and that pretty, vivacious bride.

Video   Husband blames strong currents for wife's death Gabe Watson tells investigators his version of what happened. Dateline NBC

But when they finally did speak Ken, the vacationing diver, and Tommy, the father of the drowned woman, agreed to meet at the end of November 2003, about a month after Tina's death. It was a planned cup of coffee and a brief chat ended up lasting four hours.

Tommy Thomas: I said, you know, the thing that just haunts Cindy and I the most is the thought of Tina going to the ocean bottom with her arms stretched up toward Gabe looking at him, and him looking at her, and him turning to leave her, wondering what was going through her mind.

Ken Snyder: And I said, "Tommy, you can rest assured, that was not her last sight. Because that didn't happen." And he stared at me and I said, "Tommy, I don't know what happened underwater, but that didn't happen.” And I told him the conversation that Gabe had with me and with Doug.

It was a conversation that took place on the Spoilsport shortly after Gabe had come out of the water without his wife. The men say Gabe told them how Tina had panicked, his dealing with the mask and regulator, that he had lost hold of his wife, her sinking to the bottom, and his apparent inability to catch up to her as she dropped.

Doug Milsap: And I remember saying, you know, “Ken? I feel terrible about this, but something doesn't smell right here. This story is just not right."

Ken Snyder and Doug Milsap are divers with 25 years of experience and both can claim the highest level of certification in their sport: dive master.

Ken Snyder: He said “She was below me 10 feet or so with her arms outstretched, sinking feet first. And I had to make a split-second decision whether to assist her or go to the surface and get help.”

Dennis Murphy: I'm not a diver. Sounds plausible to me.

Ken Snyder: None of his story was plausible, in fact. My blood pressure got up at that point. And I said, "Gabe, you left her?" And he said, "I had to determine that I needed to go get help." And I said, "Gabe, that didn't happen. You better come up with something else. Cause that story didn't happen.”

Dennis Murphy: And the reason it couldn't happen?

Ken Snyder: Four or five things. She clearly could have panicked.

Doug Milsap: Panicked divers don't relax and raise their hands up in the air and look at you placidly saying, "Goodbye." She's going to be either clawing for his air supply or going for the surface.

Ken Snyder: Dead people sink.

And why, they wondered, couldn't Gabe reach his wife when she was only 10 feet beneath him?

Doug Milsap: Ten feet is a pittance underwater. It's two fin kicks and you're on top of her. There's absolutely no reason why he couldn't have followed her down.

And leaving Tina violated a cardinal rule of diving.

Doug Milsap: Diving is a buddy situation. It's not OK to leave your buddy. It's just not. It's unconscionable--

And then the two said Gabe told them something that, in their experience, seemed inconceivable. Gabe said that Tina was too heavy for him.

Doug Milsap: He said “I reached out and I had a hold of her. And she was—“

Dennis Murphy: That's the buoyancy vest?

Doug Milsap: The buoyancy compensator. "I had a hold of her BC. And she was too heavy. And I couldn't hold on to her and I lost my grip on her and she started to sink."

Dennis Murphy: You challenged him at that moment, didn't you? What did you say?

Doug Milsap: I told him it was B.S. because underwater as long -- if your feet are not braced on the bottom there's no sensation of weight.

Doug remembers Gabe then tweaking his story.

Doug Milsap: And said, "Well, I had a hold of her and I was kicking and I was trying to pull her toward the surface. And at that point, she was too heavy. And I lost my grip on her and she started to sink."

Gabe is a stocky six-footer. Tina was five foot, and too heavy?

Dennis Murphy: Twice you said, "This is B.S., Gabe."

Doug Milsap: I did.

Dennis Murphy: Did he take it like a slap?

Doug Milsap: Well, he kind of looked confused and astonished and wanted to know why I felt that way. And when I told him the first time, he changed his story. When I told him the second time, our conversation kind of ended.

And as the Thomas family remembers it, Gabe had said something to them that turned out not to be true. He said that he was right by his wife's side as she lay on the deck of the boat slipping away.

Tommy Thomas: He said he was holding her and calling to her while they were trying to resuscitate her.

Ken Snyder: He never went over to her. That would have been a normal male response. He would have jumped over the side of the boat and swam to his wife, just would have went to her. I mean, if you deserted her once, you wouldn't desert her again. I mean, it was just unbelievable.

Tommy Thomas: He didn't go over until after he knew she was dead.

Doug Milsap: None of this makes sense and it all indicates that he's not telling the truth about something.

The police would soon have the same feeling,

Brad Flynn: They could not say, "We look at this as being just an accident."

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