ten minutes into the dive, she appeared fine, but somehow, at some point in what should have been a pleasant little dive before lunch, something went gravely amiss. david swain says he s surfaced alone and spoke to christian. my first question, was is shelley back yet? he said no, i said okay. looks like you are going in? at that moment, is there any alarm but she has not broken the surface? he was not alarmed, i was not alarmed. christian then started his dive. he later gave a statement that between the outer line of the wrecks, he found something off shelley s fin, like this one, sticking out of the sand. when you got closer to the wrecks he found shelley herself, lying on the ocean for, face up, eyes open, near one end of the boats. he quickly grabbed her and brought her to the surface. then christian does come back? he does not come back, he surfaces, screaming. what did you hear in his voice? words? alarm? the word was emergency. swain hopped in the dinghy and
that was a question burning in the mind of shirley s parents, richard, and lisa. ever since swain had returned from the caribbean with her daughter spotty, they demanded answers from their son-in-law. answers that were not forthcoming. in the first moment i heard and kept saying over the phone to him, but you had the buddy system, you were there, you had the buddy system. and he just kept saying, i wasn t there. so they are saying, you are the expert, and you are the caretaker. they were wondering why why did you leave her? why did i let this happen. swain s first face to face meeting with his in-laws ended in a shouting match, and swain recalls it. and, for the next three years, there s suspicion of foul play only grew. and, in 2002, they filed a wrongful death suit in civil court, claiming, swain was involved in shelley tire s death. nothing good happens in the court. nothing takes care of our pain, and our loss.
him. as i get closer, i realize that it is shelley. how much trouble was she in? the idea was, she was unresponsive right away, that was a big problem. christian and david say they both attempted cpr, but her body did not respond. david, trained as an emt said she is gone. the part that really got me was, the people flat out not doing anything. that broke my heart, brought this whole calamity to where we are today. back on the boat, swain radioed for help. the first to respond was keith royal. the scene on the caribbean soul was somber, shelley was laying in the cockpit. everybody obviously was very, very destroyed. back on island, shelley was pronounced dead. an autopsy was conducted at a local funeral home. the cause of death, drowning. the coroner ruled it an accident. swain was free to return to tortola, in return to his own island of
that the only human on the dive with shelley was her husband and dive buddy david swain. but swain ed always insisted he was nowhere near chile when she died. rather, he and shelley had gone their separate ways after reaching the wreck. i have a vague recollection of circumnavigating the wreck, poking around the wreck and seeing shelley still looking at something around there. that is the last i saw her as i swim off. but now the prosecutor says that swain s own words in the taped deposition proved that he was still chilly when he died. listen to how long he says he was at the wreck before leaving challenge for the wreath. how much time did you spend. not long. certainly less than ten minutes, probably more than five. and after your 5 to 10 minutes at the wreck, what did you do?
years in a small prison cell on the caribbean island years in a small presence on the caribbean island of tortola. we went and i was out of my cell was one or two hours a day. every dad walker evelyn darken. now he would finally have his day in court. the charge, murdering his wife shelley tire on a scuba dive ten years before. he pleaded not guilty. and with the stakes so much higher this time, criminal, not about money but maybe decades in prison. swain came prepared. with caroline council. plus a top legal team from boston. it will be a lengthy trial. government expects to call witnesses for another 12 days. shelley tires parents also had their attorney. he had won the civil suit against swing back in rhode island it was now helping tortola prosecutors.