HELENA, Ala. – After Christina Watson drowned during a honeymoon scuba-diving expedition, her parents decorated her grave with flowers and gifts, only to find they kept disappearing.
So they bolted the flowers to the ground, thinking that would solve the problem.
They were wrong, and now they know why.
An Alabama police officer testified this week in a coroner's inquest that he filmed Gabe Watson using bolt cutters to remove the flowers from his late wife's grave, according to a report in The Birmingham News.
"We communicated this to the Queensland police, who were investigating Tina's death, and we decided to set up surveillance," said Sgt. Brad Flynn, the lead American investigator into the cause of the Oct. 22, 2003, drowning off Australia.
"The tape showed Gabe Watson taking cutters from his vehicle and cutting the bolt."
The newspaper reports that Watson’s American attorneys defended his actions by pointing to the cemetery’s policy prohibiting permanent fixtures on grave sites.
"This was a steel rod and chain hooked to plastic flowers," attorney Bob Austin said.
Click here to read more on this story from The Birmingham News.
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