Mystery in the deep blue sea

Today in Australia, the investigation into Tina Watson's death that began on a reef at the bottom of the Coral Sea more than five years ago moved inland 700-miles south to an Australian courtroom in Brisbane.

Gabe Watson had turned himself in to face criminal charges. The Australian coroner determined that based on the all the evidence a jury could find Gabe Watson guilty of murder and the case should go to trial.

Attorneys for the Thomas's theorized that Watson had turned off the oxygen supply on his bride's air tank, then turned it back on when she was unconscious letting her drop to the ocean floor as he swam for the surface, a scenario replicated in the police divers' underwater reconstruction.

As Tina's dad Tommy Thomas, her sister Alanda, and best friend Amanda Phillips left their hotel there for court this morning they were grim-faced, suspecting that the prosecutor and Gabe had cut a deal for a lesser punishment, that they'd never see something they cried out for: a full-blown murder trial with evidence and testimony.

Watson has remarried. His second wife entered the courthouse this morning. In the courtroom 32-year old Gabe Watson, rose for the judge's question:

As to the murder charge , how do you plead?

Watson said not guilty, then entered a plea of guilty to manslaughter. And that was it. The court accepted his plea and he was given four and half years of a suspended sentence. He will actually serve 11-months behind bars in Australia.

Outside the courthouse, Tina's Dad let loose on justice Australian style:

Tommy Thomas: It’s total injustice, it’s ludicrous what we have just seen.  He was charged with murder, by a senior coroner in the Townseville Supreme Court, that had completed an extensive investigation of the police's investigation. I was just totally destroyed. It’s ludicrous. It’s a slap to the Australian people and the justice system. It’s a slap in the face to the police on both sides, both in us and Australia that spent time investigating this case and the four and the four and a half years here is a joke.

Her family is convinced that Gabe murdered Tina, convinced that he cut a cynical deal with the authorities that let him off with a slap of the wrist.

Alanda: Was in complete shock, complete shock, so complete injustice to Tina, I can't even begin to describe how hard it was to sit there and hear him say that how little my sister life was valued to them. It was very painful.

The Australian investigators who'd labored five and a half years on the case couldn't comment on the manslaughter plea, but Detective Lt. Brad Flynn of Helena, Alabama, was free to tell the cameras and reporters just what he thought.

Detective Flynn: I am, I very shaken . You dedicate yourself, like, five and half years of your life to the case and you want to see resolution, you want to see some closure, you didn't get that today. Not for me but for her family, we didn't get it.

Tina's best friend Amanda:

Amanda: I never thought it would be this minimal. Michael Vick will have spent more time in jail for dogs. Then Gabe will have spent time for Tina. And she was a person.

At the heart of what Gabe Watson pleaded guilty to was this: The certified rescue diver said he didn't murder Tina, but he was guilty of being an irresponsible dive buddy. He was guilty of manslaughter for not helping her with her buoyancy vest, getting her weights dropped, letting her slip away from his grasp.

The diver from the boat who actually recovered Tina from a 100-feet down, Wade Singleton, said he thought today's manslaughter plea allowed Gabe to get off light. He, for one, would like to have seen a murder trial.

Wade: Well, to put it simply, to leave some one down there, invasively signing a death warrant, you are leaving them to die as long as they are underwater and they're  not breathing there is no chance of survival so the most important thing is if that person is in trouble they need to be gotten to survive.

Neither Watson's family in the States nor his attorneys would discuss today's plea agreement. The Thomas family, Tina's friend and the detective who pursued the case for years will return to Alabama now with the taste of ashes in their mouth.

Amanda: Whether or not this was a murder or a horrific accident, there are not just five people affected by this. There are dozens upon dozens of people who are so affected by this and that's the real tragedy.

Exactly what happened that morning on the Great Barrier Reef remains a mystery to them all.

Tommy Thomas: This is in no way shape or form even the beginning find get justice for our daughter.

But a ruling that the bridegroom was simply a bad dive-buddy in no way quenches their thirst for justice.

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