Father Certain in Daughter's Honeymoon Drowning

As ex-son-in-law prepares to defend himself in court, father certain of guilt.

ByABC News via logo
May 27, 2009, 6:30 PM

May 28, 2009 — -- As Gabe Watson waits in an Australian jail to defend himself in court against accusations that he killed his new bride on a scuba diving trip in 2003, the woman's father, Tommy Thomas, has no doubts about what happened in his daughter's final moments.

"He had turned off her oxygen," Thomas told "Good Morning America." Like the millions of viewers that saw media reports of the death, Thomas has seen the image of his daughter floating motionless in the water as captured by a tourist's underwater camera. Watson is not in the picture.

"He had held her until she went unconscious, then turned it back on and let her go to the sea bed," Thomas said.

Eleven days after a fairy tale wedding in Birmingham, Ala., in October 2003, 26-year-old Tina Watson and her new husband, Gabe Watson, went on a scuba diving adventure off the coast of Australia. Now, more than five years later, Gabe Watson is charged with her murder and faces a trial in Australia.

Watson voluntarily returned to Australia May 13, was met by his Australian attorney and taken into custody. His first court appearance is scheduled for Friday.

Earlier this month, the lead Australian prosecutor, Brendan Campbell, led a delegation of Australian law enforcement to Birmingham, Ala., to brief the Thompson family on the case and the Australian legal system.

Watson's attorney refused to talk to ABC News but has said his client is not guilty.

It had been Gabe Watson's idea to go scuba diving for the honeymoon, even though Tina Watson just got her license days before the pair departed for the trip.

Thomas said he was happy about the wedding but had "some reservations and fears about the future for her."

"She said that Gabe had told her that if she wanted him to do things that she liked to do, then she needed to do what he liked to do. And he liked to dive," Thomas said.

Gabe Watson, an experienced rescue diver, told authorities that Tina appeared to panic underwater and clutched at his mask, pulling it off his face.

He said she was too heavy to bring to the surface and instead, he went for help as she sank to the bottom of the ocean. One of the dive leaders pulled Tina to the surface, but efforts to resuscitate her failed.