Murder or accident? Shelley Tyre's fatal dive

David Swain's daughter, Jen Bloom, says, "Diving is a beautiful sport that is inherently dangerous. …and accidents happen."

Was Shelley Tyre's death a horrible accident? A mystery?

"I don't have the answers," David replied.

David says his inability to explain Shelley Tyre's death led her parents to assume the worst: that he murdered their daughter.

"How did that make you feel, knowing that your in-laws thought you had killed their daughter?" Roberts asked.

"Sad. I mean, it made me sad," David replied.

"Not angry?"

"They didn't know diving."

One year after Shelley's death, the Tyres hired an attorney and sent him and his team of experts to Tortola in search of the answers David didn't have.

Over the course of several months, the team uncovered evidence they believe proves David was lying. "48 Hours" asked a leading expert in underwater investigations to examine their findings.

Sergeant Jeff Morgan, with the San Bernardino County, Calif., Sheriff's Department, offered to sift through case documents provided by "48 Hours."

"After reviewing all the facts of this case, this was much, much more than just a simple scuba diving accident," said Sgt. Morgan.

Morgan also attempted to replicate, underwater, key parts of Shelley and David's fatal dive. What first troubled him about the case was the short amount of time David performed CPR on Shelley.

"Typically, you don't stop CPR until, as a rescuer, you can no longer perform it, til you're exhausted," Morgan explained.

When Roberts asks David Swain how long he performed CPR on Shelley, he replies, "That's the big, magic question. Minutes. Was it 5 minutes, was it 10 minutes? Was it 4 minutes? I don't know. It was minutes."

Morgan points out, "David was very emphatic that 'she's gone' or 'she's dead.' …I don't think that's the appropriate response. I don't think that you can declare a person dead in that short of a time span."

Next, David made a distress call. Dive boat captain Keith Royle was the first on the scene. But again, David, a trained EMT, insisted that no extraordinary measures be taken.

"When I offered my help he stated he was a paramedic. He'd seen dead bodies before. The woman was dead, there was no need to do further CPR," Royle told Roberts.

Royle says he was surprised by the response. "When I pulled up along side him, I would have certainly expected him to want somebody to help."

Jen Bloom says her father's priority was getting Shelley back to shore and protecting her dignity in death.

"It was over," she explained in tears, "and he didn't want to sit there and watch someone beat on her and try and get her heart started."

David told Roberts, "There was nothing left to do. Nothing. If you are performing CPR on somebody that is responsive, sure. I would've gone until hell froze over. But she was not responding to anything."

But it wasn't just David's behavior that afternoon that raised red flags. Tortolan police discovered Shelley's equipment was damaged. Police didn't make much of it, but the expert hired by her family's attorney did.

Engineer Bill Oliver designs scuba gear.

"What was unusual about Shelley's mask is the strap was broken from the side of the mask," Oliver demonstrated. "And where this pin [here] is intact on this mask, it was missing from hers."

Shelley's snorkel, attached to the same side of the mask as the broken pin, was also missing its mouthpiece.

"My belief is something pulled the mask off of her face and I can see a scenario where she resisted that," Oliver explained. "She held onto the mask. And in the tug of war, some things gave."

And then there was Shelley's fin. "The heel strap was pulled down over the sole plate of the fin," Oliver continues. "The strap was adjusted very tightly, so to pull it over the heel strap - it took some force to get it over."

It is force that Oliver says Shelley could not have applied herself. "The bottom line is somebody intervened besides Shelley Tyre with this equipment to get it in that condition."

Sergeant Jeff Morgan agrees. "Shelley didn't die in an accident," he said. "She was murdered."

What's more, Morgan says only one person could have been responsible.

"In all reality, there was nobody else in the water at the time of Shelley's death but David Swain," he said.

Morgan, who replicated, underwater, key parts of Shelley and David's last dive, shares his findings:

"I think that David swam up behind her and shut off the air supply … held onto her until she was struggling, reached up and grabbed the mask. Ripped the mask from her face, and held onto her until she stopped struggling…

"Shelley, if she did panic in this situation, panicked after her air supply was shut off. And, again, the only person that could have possibly shut it off was David," he said.

Roberts asks David, "Did you kill Shelley Tyre?"

"Did not, would not, could not," he replies. "This thought, this craziness that I would do something like that to Shelley is just so revolting.

But the Tyres insist David had a motive. Right before the trip to Tortola, Shelley decided to change jobs and take a substantial cut in pay.

"The dive shop that David had was very much supported by Shelley's income," Morgan noted. "If Shelley was going to take a pay cut, his business may not survive."

According to Sgt. Morgan, that, along with the couple's prenuptial agreement, meant Shelley was worth more to David dead than alive.

"That provides for a motive to commit murder," he said.

"Everybody keeps thinking that I'm doing all this for money," David explained. "I'm just as happy being flat broke as I am when I'm fat and rich. Probably happier flat broke. Less hassle."

The Tyres weren't buying it. They were now convinced David murdered their daughter. But authorities in Tortola still refused to rule Shelley's death a homicide. So in 2006, they sued David in a Rhode Island civil court for wrongful death.

In a videotaped deposition, David testifies he and Shelley swam together for 10 to 15 minutes before they separated.

"I have a vague recollection of circumnavigating the wrecks, poking around the wrecks, and seeing Shelley still interested in looking at something there and that's the last time I saw her as I swam off toward the reef," David told investigators.

Watch excerpts of David Swain's 2003 deposition

But the Tyres' attorney tried to prove David was with Shelley when she drowned. Based on the air left in Shelley's tank, he calculates she stopped breathing just 8 minutes into her dive.

"She battled for her life at the point and place and time exactly when he was with her. She was burning her air right up to the point where he shut it off," the Tyres' attorney told the court.

He then shows the jury a videotaped demonstration that he and his team prepared illustrating their theory of how David Swain swam up behind Shelley, turned off her air and killed her.

Watch the reenactment prepared by the Tyres' attorney.

In less than three hours, the jury finds David Swain responsible for Shelley's death and awards Lisa and Richard Tyre $3.5 million. The Tyres say this has never been about the money.

"Money has nothing to do with it. Nothing. It's we just want Shelley," Richard Tyre told reporters outside court following the verdict.

Armed with a civil court attorney, the Tyres' attorney convinced Tortolan authorities to reopen their investigation. A year-and-a-half later, island prosecutors charged David Swain with the murder of his wife. David did not fight extradition and wound up in a Tortolan jail.

With his trial now looming, his children, Jen and Jeremy, will travel to the island to help prove their father is innocent. But before they can do that, their father will first have to explain another woman.

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[GrandmaWV]

I have read some about this and the inheritance thing. He wants his children her step-children to inherit as he can not. However the children/step-children were to inherit if he died less than 30 days after she did. Here is the problem,he did not die. He was ordered to pay damages in a wrongful death case where by a preponderance of evidence said he was guilty this voided his right to inherit but there was no clause in her will that the step children would inherit if the father was found ineligible to inherit due to not being able to inherit as a result of his wrong doing. (they said the verdict in the wrongful death case mandates he be excluded as a inheriter. It does not make him dead so the provision for the kids to inherit in the event of his death do not come into play. He is alive and well.

[fla_viewer]

Just watched the episode for the second time. Both times I was struck by the adamance of his children and even his ex-wife, which proved only to me that they are blindly loyal. His embarrassing denials of a desired affair prove him a liar -- and once a liar about one big thing, possibly a liar about more things. "The mess I've gotten myself into" and the money factor point to but one conclusion for me.

[Wildwood1966]

I know nothing about diving and the thought of it petrifies me - if I were uncomfortable doing it no matter how much my husband begged I would not do it - stay on the boat read abook be the cheerleader - that said I watched almost all of this and I truly believe her parents must be heartbroken - who wouldn't - but in what I heard and now I read the verdict I would have had to say not guility also if I were a juror - my heart goes out to everybody involved -

[jgnv]

After reading this story in its entirety, I have so many questions and concerns regarding this man's true character. It seems highly unlikely that anyone could survive a dysfunctional childhood, such as his, so unscathed and detached. I find it impossible to believe that an experienced diver could allow his wife, a novice diver, to remain underwater unsupervised. Why didn't authorities investigate and confirm her equipment had been tampered with immediately after the accident? The fact that he previously sought to have an extramarital relationship and was, admittedly dependent on his wife's lucrative income to support his lifestyle, is equally damning. Unfortunately, whenever a questionable death occurs in a foreign country, families and loved ones are depend on the resources available which are often found to be negligent and overlook important details. Even in the case of a civil suit where this defendent was found guilty, the monetary judgement has and probably never will be collected. This man realized all along that time was on his side and, given enough years, the contradictory theories and fading memories would eventually free him to continue living his carefree lifestyle.

[nur205]

Did anyone note that her being an educator, specifically a principal, that in her diary entries she "supposedly" misspelled the word panicked - it was spelled paniced! Wonder if the diary entries were also forged by her husband! Just another thought

[jon355]

They weren't diving in Rhode Island, they were in the Caribbean. Not many people that are happily married kiss a woman, then when the woman says she does want to have anything to do with a married man, take it upon themselves to write letters to her addressing her as a soul mate. Then invite her for a weekend away without telling his wife because he just wants a "girl" friend not a girlfriend. He refers to the mess he was in. He acted like a lovesick sick schoolboy.

She is only dead for 2 months yet he feels comfortable dating the Soul Mate "girl" friend. They should have allowed the evidence regarding her dive logs in. However I think his cooked his own goose with the letters, the sprucing up the dive shop, and taking vacations with the insurance money like he was celebrating. Even someone who doesn't show emotions outwardly, feels them, and grieves.

[YDD2HQY]

I SURELY DO BELIEVE HE MURDERED HIS WIFE.....HE OBVIOUSLY WAS TIRED OF HER AS HE WAS AFTER ANOTHER WOMAN CALLING HER HIS SOUL MATE....ALSO HE WAS HAPPY ACTING AFTER HER DEATH...IF HE WAS SO UNEMOTIONAL, PEOPLE SAYING HE WAS AN UNEMOTIONAL PERSON, THEN HOW WOULD HE ACT SO HAPPY....WHICH WAS EMOTIONAL....PLEASSSSEE! HOW CAN PEOPLE BE SO STUPID IN THIS DAY IN TIME....MEN ARE MURDERING THEIR WIVES ALL THE TIME AND HE WAS IN A HORRIBLE FAMILY AND USED TO SEEING AND BEING A PART OF THAT KIND OF LIFE.....

[MUtiger1955]

I suppose my comment should be applied to nearly everyone in the present 11 here: don't ever present yourself for jury duty. Murder convictions and determinations of guilt rest on evidence, not feelings, suspicions, or appropriateness of a person's manner in a grief situation. I note that YDD2HQY says he/she "believes" Mr. Swain murdered his wife. That's nice. It is not however relevant. It's not what you believe in court-it's what you can prove. Belief is good enough for a lynch mob, which coincidentally is that only thing YDD2HQY does seem qualified for. These sorts of people are all for punishing someone else, but when the sort mob justice they espouse is applied to them, they squeal like pigs. I can't wait until your turn comes...weeee weeee.

[no1bubba]

Husband and I both fell asleep after he was judged guilty....how did he get the decision reversed?

[icudimly]

Somewhere in the show I heard the word "seizure" mentioned but it was never expanded upon. I noticed that Shelly had a dental feature that is common in people who take dilantin for seizure control (ie. longer gum on upper teeth). Did Sally suffer from epilepsy?
If so, she may have suffered a seizure. Seizures can cause a person's body to become physically violent in its movements.
Also,who knows if her equipment got caught on a piece of that wreckage, frightening her into a panic and then triggering a seizure?

[bruce789]

I think David was more of a free spirit than his wife, depressed childhood could lead to a more fun adulthood. Wife looked for more fun, she who had a good job and an activity of looking for treasure in dives, different searches though from David. The letters are off the wall, David found something here not sure what to do and is near desperate (or a loser) to Mary in the letters but careful not to ruin this event that occurred between the two, a goofy but possibly meaningful kiss. Mary is great writer, acknowledges him as valued person in pretty great writing.

[sdsailr]

I believe David and his children. I know about diving, the high risks if panic and disorientation and the the lack of emotional display by those who have experienced abuse. It is very common for inexperienced divers to panic and rip off gear suddenly. I have done it myself. Her parent are angry and on a witch hunt. I was glad to see that his flawed trial was reversed.

[heyscuba]

@ sdsailr
why did they ever discuss one of the main rules in diving,... "dive with a buddy and never separate,...." he's a water safety instructor and they don't follow that very important,...? they breezed over it like it was no big deal, but to me that's a clue,... do you and your dive buddy separate on purpose and go up at different times,...? not on my dives,....

[RhodeIsland2009]

@heyscuba -
Have you ever dived in RI? Do you dive in the Northeast? The buddy system here, particularly in experienced divers like myself, David and Shelley (and most of my dive buddies) is more like a hopeful idea. Visibility here tops out at 10 feet on the BEST days and is typically below 5 feet. And if you recall what "vis" means, that means that you could even identify that there's a diver THERE 5 feet away. If you're not constantly maintaining a physical contact with your buddy, you WILL get separated - that's pretty much a given. If you did what PADI suggests, you'd spend more time on the surface trying to meet up with your buddy than you would diving.
Here in RI, those who dive often typically have higher certs and believe in self-sufficiency. Many people choose to dive solo, but for those of us who don't, we don't worry if we get separated from our buddies because we trust our own skills and theirs. That translates to when we dive warm, clear water as well as when we dive cold, low vis water.

If you don't know the conditions up here, you don't know what you're talking about. So don't make a fool out of yourself with stupid statements about "rules" of diving. You'll note that the teaching agencies call it the buddy "system" - not the buddy "rule." Is it a good idea? In a lot of cases, yes, but not all. And not all divers choose to follow it - particularly those who are more advanced (than apparently you are).