Hey weirdos, it's Ash here, ready to share a little secret.
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I have been listening to the Martha's Vineyard Beach and Book Club, which actually Elena recommended to me.
She did not listen to it, but she said, girl, this title sounds so you.
And let me tell you, it did. I've been listening to it while I walk and I am absolutely loving it.
I love all the different narrators. I love Audible.
There's more to imagine when you listen.
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You know what's even more stressful than a packed calendar?
Realizing you're out of coffee right before a meeting.
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The sale ends 831. Don't miss it. I'm Ash.
And I'm Alayna. And this is like... sort of morbid, but not really.
It's morbid countdown. Oh, a mashup. A mashup.
A mashup, if you will. Cry morbid. Nope.
Crime. Nope. Morbid countdown works. Morbid.
We're going to go with morbid countdown.
Well, realistically, we're just here because...
It's Crime Countdown's one year anniversary, which is absolutely bonkers.
Crime countdown is one. So you know what we did for it?
We got it a smash cake. We did a theme party.
I took pictures. It wore a tutu. It did, yep.
It's growing up so fast. It is. It was great.
We made everybody sit around while it opened gifts that it can't even comprehend.
We sing happy birthday to it. It's been so much fun.
We loved it. We sang happy birthday to the Spotify app on our phones. did for crime countdown we really did but in all reality crime countdown has been so much fun We have had such a blast working with the Parcast family on Spotify.
We hope that we have many, many more years of crime countdown to shove into your ear holes.
Like forever, I'm hoping. like literally forever till we're old like even even after that yeah even after you know forever plus a day it's only forever not long at all you know i knew you were gonna say that But I think in case you haven't jumped on the train yet, I just want to tell you, you're missing out.
There's room for you. There's room for you.
There's plenty of room. We got room. And if there isn't room, we'll make room.
We'll make room for you. You're welcome. everybody's welcome here yeah and some of my favorite episodes that we've done over the past year because just to get you get you excited give you a little inkling We did one on Bermuda Triangles and it was all the different different like weird like the Bridgewater Triangles on there and you know how I feel about the Bridgewater Triangle since we're sitting in it right now.
And the other one that really just like tickled me in the worst kind of way was horrifying home invasions because...
Oh boy. It features my favorite movie, The Strangers.
It does. So go listen to those ones. They're good.
I think if I had to pick over the past year, I would say one of my absolute favorites was Celeb Spies because we know I love a good celeb. good one and there were some shocking ones on there yes like what that's what's been cool is these countdowns all of a sudden i'm like wait What?
I had no idea about that. I'll learn something new every time.
Every time. And then I'm trying to think of another one.
I would say my other favorite was probably Faked Deaths and Double Lives.
Oh yeah, that was a good one. Because it's just like crazy that...
I never understand how people live two lives.
Yeah. And then taking your own death is like, I also don't understand that.
And to see the lengths that they go to and how they get caught with it or how they get away with it forever, it's insane.
And also some more news for you is that it's kind of like changing up a little.
Because we listened. We listened. We're evolving because a lot of people were like, we love these countdowns.
They're nice little bite sized. Morsels.
Pieces. But, like, every now and then I get really into one and I'm like, I want to know a little more.
Like, a little more details. Mm-hmm. And so the brain trust all got together.
We heard you. The research gods figured it out.
And what we did was we have a new format that's going to be a deeper dive into the number one on the countdown.
The number one spot is gonna have a big, long, detailed dive.
So you know whatever the number one slot is, which is always the craziest, always the most interesting.
Gnarly. We're going to go hard into that one for the new season, season two.
Yeah. Yay, season two. So we also gathered you here today because...
Here is like a little tiny preview of Crime Countdown for you.
It's the birthday preview. I love it. So enjoy.
Here you go. Making memories that signify the beginning of a long life together, that's the basic idea of why we honeymoon after getting married.
But sadly, there are too many cases where the memories are haunting. because they actually signify the end of not just the marriage, but someone's life.
Honeymoons can go bad in a lot of ways, but for the trips taken on this countdown, They went criminally bad.
And just wait until we climb aboard number one.
As we start a new season of Cram Countdown, we will be giving you a lot more details with each number, but we're really going to dive headfirst into our number ones.
And I've got a story this week that will have us all asking, accident or murder?
Thank you. Hey all you weirdos, welcome to Crime Countdown, a Spotify original from Parcast.
I am Ash. And I'm Elena. Every week we'll highlight 10 fascinating stories. of history's most engaging and unsettling crimes, all picked by the Parcast Research Gods.
This episode, we're counting down the top 10 honeymoons gone wrong.
All right. So now I'm excited I get to talk about my honeymoon for a second.
Oh, my God. I was going to talk about mine first, though.
Mine first. I'm just kidding. I haven't wed.
What a fun opportunity. Well, my honeymoon was in Aruba and it was like nine years ago now, which is...
Wild. You old. So old. And it was by, I'm serious, it was by far the greatest vacation I have ever had.
That's what it's supposed to be. Thus far.
The only thing that happened that could even just be viewed even as a little negative was that John lost his wedding band in the Caribbean Ocean within 24 hours of me placing it on his finger on the wire. in the wedding ceremony.
He was so upset. Like it was so, he was like, I remember him just standing up in the ocean and pointing to his finger.
It's gone. Did you think he was playing a trick on you?
No, because I was watching him because he was so excited to get into the ocean, like the Caribbean Ocean.
He couldn't wait. He's such a fish. And now it's like just a funny story we tell.
I remember you coming home and telling me that story.
And I was like, is it okay to laugh? Like, can I laugh?
But now I'm like funny. Now I'm still lolling at that, even though I'm sure it wasn't funny at the time.
But I feel like in general, people put so much pressure on their honeymoon being like the best vacation ever.
Yeah. It's like, just chill out. Like, you're probably tired.
You probably need a rest. Yeah, just let it happen.
Just don't put so much pressure on it. Exactly.
In fact, even though it was kind of a bummer that he didn't have his original ring anymore, We did laugh it off almost immediately because we just decided to enjoy. the rest of it like just enjoy our time there therefore and material things are just that Like, just let it go.
But yeah, it should really just be about relaxing and enjoying being married.
Like you just weddings are hard. Weddings are like expensive.
They're stressful. They're just like a lot of planning.
So just relax and don't try to over plan.
Yeah, it's too bad the people on this list didn't heed that warning.
They did not relax. These honeymoons were anything but relaxing.
Elena has five of them. those honeymoons that went terribly wrong and so do I, but neither of us knows which the other one has.
Let's start the countdown. 10. I'll start us off with number 10, the death of Christie Cadman Jones.
Christy and her husband Damien headed off on their honeymoon about six months after their wedding.
They were traveling through Southeast Asia, including visiting Thailand and Vietnam before getting to Cambodia.
But this is where the trip ended, when Christy mysteriously passed away in her sleep on January 9th, 2012.
According to the Guardian, she died of morphine and codeine toxicity that was a result of taking heroin that she allegedly mistook for cocaine. mistook or was misinformed because I don't think that usually happens.
Also, what a casual problem to have. What a casual mistake to make.
It's a wild honeymoon. And if you Google pictures like at first it sounds like a little crazy but there are forms of heroin that do look like cocaine Oh, look at that.
Yeah, exactly. Google, everybody. Google, the more you know.
But, you know, then her husband's statement started to seem a little bit suspicious and And the deputy coroner was not buying the husband's answers to the questions at the inquest into her death back in the UK.
The coroner said someone had contacted the couple's life insurance company the day Christy died.
Come on. said it wasn't him. So we gotta believe that, you know?
Come on, Damien. No. The coroner also questioned Damien's motives to have his wife embalmed, saying it was like to cover up toxicology evidence, which You know that would make sense?
You know what? This coroner seems like right on it.
He does. And Damien was not there for that.
He claimed it was because he was told he needed to have embalming done 48 hours after death. and he did it so that Christy's mother could say goodbye to her daughter, which...
I guess you could see that side of it too.
That's very fair. But now knowing that the two substances can look alike.
It is seeming a little like, was that an intentional mixup?
Was that a setup? Yeah. Well, Damien also contradicted himself when at one point he left out whether he and his wife had been offered drugs. but then later stated that a couple they met asked if they wanted cocaine.
Wow. Yeah, so it's like, what's the truth here, Damien?
Were you offered some or were you not? Did you not get offered that?
According to the BBC, Damien only named the couple as Terrence and Jess and said they all went back to their hotel room together.
Terrence and Jess had a bag of cocaine, but Damien said he refused it, quote, on behalf of himself and his wife. but I guess she still took it.
Yeah, what? So if your wife dies because of someone else's drugs, why not help track those people down?
You would think that would be something you'd want to do.
I feel like I would want to do that. Yeah, I feel like I would want to do that too.
And I think the deputy coroner would want someone to do that. because he found Damien's testimony not credible and declared the circumstances of her death could not be clearly determined.
Heck yeah to the deputy coroner. And the coroner believes that he may have been able to get a charge of unlawful killing but didn't believe he could prove the husband's involvement beyond reasonable doubt.
Ooh, that's a shady one. It's wicked shady.
And then it's like, so there's no justice here.
Yeah, because everybody kind of knows... but they don't know.
Damien definitely knows what's up, and he's gonna tell us someday.
I mean, Damien knows some things. Tell us all.
I bet he knows a couple things. I'm not saying what things.
I'm just saying he knows some stuff. Yeah, that's all.
That's fine. Yeah. Nine. Number nine on our countdown is Aurora Martine and Peter Uwe Schmidt.
This Belgian couple was called the Diabolical Lovers by the media in their home country.
That's because these two lovers were also murderous con artists who killed their newlywed spouses to collect the insurance money.
Whoa. Yeah. Just really, really getting into it here.
We're not burying the lead at all. Just not.
Aurora and Peter met in 1991, but they needed some cash.
So they did what any logical human would do.
Peter married someone else. Oh, OK. That's what you do, right?
Yeah, that's always what I've done. And then crazy story.
About five months into the marriage, Peter and his new wife's car plunged off a ramp into a canal.
Sounds totally accidental. Nuts. This is even crazier.
What? Peter was unharmed. Yeah. What? Nuts!
So crazy! Wow, what luck! His wife's body washed up on shore three days later, and within no time, Peter collected nearly half a million bucks from her life insurance policy and headed off to Florida to be with Aurora.
A love story for the ages. I'm already so mad at this.
Isn't this so precious? I hate Peter. I don't understand why.
But years later, the money ran out and it was Aurora's turn to financially support them.
So what's going to happen here? Is she going to marry someone and drive somewhere else off of something?
In May 1995, Aurora was on her honeymoon in Corsica with her new husband, Mark Van Beers.
Well, tragically, the car they were driving crashed over a cliff and into a deep ravine.
You know, it's so crazy how that just like happens to the same people. a lot of coincidences here and almost you know maybe they are meant to be together because there's a lot of the same stuff happening yeah or maybe they like should Or maybe they are evil.
I don't know. Magically, Aurora survived after being thrown from the car at the last minute.
So lucky. I'm also like, wow, because clearly this is not coincidental.
How did you guys both... managed to survive that.
Yeah, the planning here is really... Planning was impeccable.
It's next level, I will say that, but it's- Terrible.
It's evil. Diabolical is a perfect way to describe it.
It is. to describe these lovers. Well, she wasted no time getting that $800,000 insurance payout and then requested her husband be cremated.
Always sus. Weird. Thankfully, the Van Beer family was not buying it. because once Mark's body was re-examined, it was determined that he'd been beaten to death with a baseball bat. by men hired by Peter Schmidt before the car went off the cliff.
There's how they do it. Oh, okay. There you go.
According to the Guardian, Mark Van Beer's last words were, Please don't hurt my wife.
That's heartbreaking. Tell me that doesn't feel like just a knife to the chest.
That's terrible. Please don't hurt my wife.
These people are beyond evil. Time Magazine reported that Peter confessed to both crimes, and the couple was reportedly in search of their next victim when they were arrested.
Why? Thank goodness they were caught. Clearly they were doing this for a lot more than the money, too.
I think they started to enjoy it, obviously.
I'm so messed up. It's diabolically evil. eight, Number eight on our countdown of the top 10 honeymoons gone wrong is Convicted Killer and Florida's Finest, Michael Escoto.
Escoto and his wife, Wendy, had only been married for four days in 2002, when he bludgeoned her to death in an attempt to collect a million dollar life insurance payout.
Sounds familiar. Instead, he ended up in jail for life.
It's always the insurance money. It's like, come on.
All of them. As it turns out, Michael Escoto also had a girlfriend while married for those four days.
Awesome. Classy man all around, you know?
So great. Now, his girlfriend, Yolanda, actually testified at the murder trial and said that Escoto's plan was to make his wife's death look like an accident.
Cool that you know that. Yeah, it's like you shouldn't have known that and let that happen.
Very cool. He would drug her first and then let her drown in a jacuzzi while basically unconscious from the drugs.
Wow. So sad. That's savage. And what a way to go.
Jeez. But the plan got screwed up when Wendy woke up in the water and began to struggle.
Yolanda, according to CBS, claimed that when Escoto drove his semi-conscious new bride to her house, and then to the warehouse district where he allegedly bludgeoned her with a tire iron and asphyxiated her.
What? A tire iron. A tire iron? That's another level of evil.
And then asphyxiated her. Why did you have to do both of those things?
Yolanda admitted she did not witness the murder, but was waiting in her car while it happened.
But did she see Escoto toss the tire iron into the Biscayne Bay?
Yolanda, what are you doing? Like when you hear about a murder plan, Call the police.
When you hear about a murder plan, do not go to the person to the murder plan.
The number to the police is super duper easy.
It's like three numbers. Yeah. You got this.
Don't get mixed up in that. Well, 10 years later in 2012, for her testimony, Yolanda got immunity. and Escoto was found guilty of first-degree murder, thankfully.
Good. on the case said at the sentencing, quote, Wendy's life was short, but her road to justice was long.
It was also at this hearing that Escoda was denied a retrial and sentenced to life in prison without conviction. the possibility of parole.
Good. So at least justice was served in this one.
But also Yolanda should have got some time here.
It's always so frustrating when people get off of like a like a crazy sentencing just because they have information.
I know. And it's like, I know you need the information, so you need it as a bargaining chip.
But they shouldn't get all scot-free. But that's the thing.
It's always like, how do they just get to walk away when they sat in a car while somebody bludgeoned and asphyxiated their unconscious wife that they already drugged and tried to drown.
You knew it was happening. Come on. You have some evil in there.
Right. Seven. At number seven this week is Brian Umphrey and Cassandra Petri.
Brian and Cassandra were honeymooning in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, when Brian killed Cassandra in their hotel room.
He then went on the run from police before being caught.
But what's more unfortunate is this was the second time these two had been married.
But not the first time Cassandra's family knew Brian was trouble.
Uh oh, this is a wild one. Brian and Cassandra had been married once before.
But he also had an extensive criminal record of assaults, thefts, and forgeries.
So Brian eventually ended up in prison. Wow, I'm shocked by that.
Cassandra's family isn't clear on why Brian was locked up. but he allegedly stole Cassandra's car and drained her bank account.
Seems pretty black and white. I feel like that might be why.
I don't know. Usually those things will lead you to go Yeah, I mean those are bad things.
So while Brian went to prison, Cassandra divorced him. but still visited him in prison, which like, oh, come on.
Oh no. And once he was out, they were right back together.
Oh no. People around the couple knew that domestic violence definitely was a factor, and Brian even once put Cassandra in the hospital. which is so terrible.
And that's what's so sad. It is so hard to get out of a situation like that. no matter how many times you try like it's so hard it is and this is a a perfect example, and this makes it even sadder.
Cassandra did have children, not with Brian.
They knew how bad and abusive Brian was, and according to Cassandra's mother, they were also told to lie about the second wedding.
So people weren't supposed to know that they got remarried.
That's messed up. Yeah, you can't do that to your kids.
Never make your kids lie for something you're doing.
It's just, don't do it. No. The two did remarry, obviously, and went to Pigeon Forge for their honeymoon, which is a classic honeymoon spot in that area.
I didn't know that. But when Cassandra didn't return calls or arrive back at her friend's house to get her kids, police were called.
February 8, 2010, investigators arrived at the Days Inn in Pigeon Forge and found Cassandra in the bed, stabbed multiple times.
Brian was immediately ID'd as a suspect and fled.
He led the police on a car chase until he got stuck in the mud and was caught.
I love that he got stuck in the mud. That was the earth reclaiming you.
Brian was charged with first degree murder.
In 2011, he was sentenced to 35 years in prison. after pleading guilty to second degree murder.
I wonder why it was second degree murder.
Interesting. Six. Landing at number six is newlyweds Scott Rosten and Karen Waltz.
Scott and Karen were on their honeymoon cruise along the Mexican coastline back in February 1988, when at some point, Karen mysteriously... fell off the ship.
Scott first claimed his wife was blown off the boat by high winds.
Oh, never heard of that happening. Wow.
Then changed his story saying that she was murdered by others to get revenge on him.
But then Karen's body was recovered. When Scott first reported that his new bride had gone overboard, he continually changed his story.
First to the ship's staff captain, and then to the FBI agents, who you probably shouldn't lie to.
Yeah, that's always a really good sign when the story changes like dramatically over and over again.
Exactly. It was always a variation of the couple being on the ship's running track and strong winds pushing her over. with him either grabbing her hands or not being able to grab her hands, but unable to rescue her either way. what kind of tornado slash monsoon slash typhoon slash hurricane was happening. that this woman was blown off a running track and into the ocean.
And was nobody else outside? Like, why didn't everybody else get blown off the boat?
Well, it's like, did it literally lift her in the air and then just throw her into the ocean?
Right. Or did it make her like stunt? Like this doesn't make any sense.
Well, and also there's like walls. Not one bit of sense is made here.
No. And for that reason, Scott was arrested by the FBI with a warrant from the Bahamas who owned the ship. for murder on high seas.
That's such a charge to get for murder on the high seas.
That would also be a great summer novel.
It has to be already. I'm sure it is. Well, then he bizarrely changed his story yet again to say that the Israeli government killed Karen and framed him for the crime.
You know, as they do, of course. So he went from one preposterous thing just to a totally different.
It was like she didn't actually get picked up by the winds.
I know that was a crazy thing to say. I do have to tell you something crazier, though.
It was the Israeli government. It's either the Israeli government or it's Mother Nature who killed her.
It's one or the other. I just couldn't remember.
I was shook. I confuse them a lot, so. Yeah.
While after a court appearance, his lawyer stated, quote, he feels that this murder is the result of a book he published last year in New York City, in which he exposed the numerous human rights abuses which he perceived in Israel.
Huh. I just don't understand why those two things would correlate.
This would just be a lot. It truly would.
Now, Karen Waltz's body was found about 10 hours after going overboard.
30 miles from the coast of San Diego. A medical examiner determined that she drowned, but there were signs of strangulation on her body. which I feel like the Israeli government didn't do that.
I don't know. In a sworn affidavit from the FBI filed in federal court, it stated that Karen's body had a goose egg-type bump on her forehead.
Dark coloration around the eyes, marks of undetermined origin on her neck, indications of blunt force injuries and abrasions, and a tiny puncture wound below her left breast.
What? So she was not picked up by the high winds.
She was absolutely not blown overboard by wind.
No way. Wow. According to the LA Times, it also stated that medium brown hair was found embedded in the rubberized jogging track, along with a broken earring matching one Karen Rosten was wearing in a photograph taken at a shipboard dinner.
And for the record, the Coast Guard reported that winds in the area when Karen went overboard were only four miles per hour or five miles. per hour.
Okay. The fact that her hair was embedded into that, that's horrifying.
That's terrifying because it's like, what happened on that track?
And on the track? Right. And how did nobody see anything?
No one was around? Clearly she was beaten on that track.
Yeah. It's terrible. Luckily, though. Scott Rosten was found guilty of second-degree murder on the high seas in March of 1989.
Wow, that's horrifying. Wow. That last one.
Always that last one. When we get to this last one.
And then we're just like, where do we go?
Where do we go from here? I just don't understand on that last one how nobody saw anything.
Yeah, I mean that's wild. That's so crazy.
Honestly, these are so sad because it's people who just got married.
Why are they murdering their spouse already?
That's insane. Yeah, you can't do that. Like, you should never do that.
You just said you wouldn't do it right now.
Yeah. Like I'm going to protect you and stuff and stay with you.
Like don't don't do that. Yeah. And like one of yours, it's like don't get married and then or decide that you don't want to be married and like you want to make a life of crime marrying other people and Yes.
That's so like, just get jobs together. You can be married.
Right. It's allowed. It's a thing. This is just so weird.
And now these are only the lower five. I know it's kind of making me nervous for my own honeymoon.
Wait, just honestly wait until you hear number one.
That's all I'm saying. Five. All right, let's jump back in with number five on our countdown of honeymoons gone wrong.
Starting off the second half of our list is Killers Claudius Giesick and Sam Corey.
This story is a literal movie set in the mid 70s between tech in New Orleans, where the plot is a powerful businessman, Sam Corey, and a low-life con man, Claudius Gieseck, Use a clueless, desperate woman to try to make extra money from her death.
Let's meet our characters. Sam Corey, a massage parlor owner who's expanding his business during a time when massage parlors are considered illicit, and in some places, illegal.
An illicit massage parlor? You know. He also decides to run for mayor of San Antonio, partly for fun. and has some of his masseuses run for city council on the same ticket.
What? Why? That's right, because who doesn't want an entire cabinet full of masseuses?
They wouldn't get a lot done for the place.
I feel like everybody would just be really relaxed.
Yeah, nobody would have neck tension. That's what you're supposed to have if you work in an office.
There you go. And he flaunts the fact that people think he and his businesses are gross.
He's owning it. He's like, vote for me, I'm disgusting.
He's like Lisa Rinna on the Housewives. I'm owning it.
Own it, just own it. He meets up with a con man, Claudius Giesecke. who initially came into Corey's massage business under a fake name to sell him on a phony credit card scam.
So already this is just... Everybody's really on the up and up here.
I feel like he's going to say, no, no, no, don't scam me, but let's scam everybody else together.
You want to scam together? This was a good meet cute.
This is a real good meet. Don't ever try to mess with me again.
Don't scam me. We'll scam everyone else.
So this is just so two shady men meet under shady circumstances and somehow form some kind of weird, twisted, toxic scam. shady friendship.
Again, I love a good meet cute. It is a good meet cute.
Now, during his trial, Giesik testified what happened next was around November 1973, Sam Corey basically blackmailed him, which I'm shocked that this did not go swimmingly.
Yeah, why wouldn't you expect that? So he was saying he should marry a woman and the two should kill her for insurance money.
That took a very dark turn. Right? it escalated so quickly.
I'd say I should not do that. And if Giesik didn't agree, Corey would turn him in knowing he was wanted for a bad check charge, so Gieseck agreed.
Again, That agreeing to murder instead of, you know, this is a whole thing of, like, I'm going to just agree to murder instead of just dealing with this, like, I wrote a bad check.
Well, I was just going to say it's like bad check.
You're going to get in some trouble, but probably not as much trouble as murder.
And you won't have that on your conscience.
So you're just willing to straight up murder an innocent woman rather than be like, yes, I signed that. bad check.
Right. Wild. Truly wild. Well, he soon met Patricia Albanowski.
She was young, often described as confused, desperate for love, and worked as a masochist.
Stop that. Already my heart aches. Barely a month after meeting her he proposed and despite many many hesitations patricia agreed oh no At the time of their honeymoon, Giesecke took out an enormous life insurance policy, shocked.
And would disappear without warning, which these are all red flags that Patricia was noticing.
Oh, well, I'm glad she noticed them. While out for a walk near the bayou in New Orleans, Sam Corey was waiting in his car for the signal.
Giesek flashed his flashlight and pushed Patricia in front of the car that Sam Corey was driving.
Oh, no. Her skull and hips were crushed.
She died nine hours later despite medical treatment.
The two were caught and the entire investigation revealed their plan.
Gieseck got a lesser sentence for turning on Sam Corey.
They should both get the same sentence. That's what I'm saying.
The entire case and trial raises the question, did Sam Corey, the powerful businessman, con the younger, good-looking con man? for a cash grab?
It makes you wonder whether Sam Corey would have eventually turned on Claudius Gieseck once he got his money.
He definitely would have. Which I say he definitely would have.
Yeah, this whole setup was the worst thing ever.
That's definitely what would have happened.
Right. And that's so sad. So you take your new wife out for a nice walk on the bayou in New Orleans and then you shove her in front of a car.
I know, and what a way to do that. What a way to do that.
Murder is always bad, but that is insane.
Yeah, that's just something about it. So sad.
Four. Landing at number four this week is The Drowning Death of Tina Watson.
Tina was on her honeymoon 11 days after her wedding in 2003, scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef with her new husband, Gabe.
During their dive, something went wrong and Tina tragically drowned.
What exactly went wrong is the question. because despite pleading guilty to manslaughter in an Australian court, Gabe continued to say he was innocent.
On October 23, 2003, the Honeymooners were on a 50-foot deep wreck dive with a group to see a 350-foot steamer that sank in 1911, which that sounds like the best time ever. that sounds so cool I love a good shipwreck terrifying but cool not when it happens but the aftermath of diving and looking at it yeah Now Gabe told ABC News, quote, I kind of figured we're on vacation.
They're going to be very easy, calm, nice, pretty dives.
But it turns out there was a strong underwater current, so it was really a dive advanced divers should have done, and Tina was not experienced.
I'm already terrified by this. Yeah, and you hate water, so I feel like this is just going to...
Yeah, this is, like, really giving me a lot of anxiety.
It's gonna make it ten times worse. While to accomplish the dive, the divers pulled themselves down by an anchor line to the ship.
They then would let go and free dive across the shipwreck and grab another line on the other end to pull themselves back up.
But once they let go of their first anchor line, Gabe told ABC News, that's where things went wrong.
He stated, as soon as we let go, we were moving, moving quite a bit.
It was definitely not what I was expecting and neither was Tina.
And that's when something went wrong for Tina.
Gabe says as he tried to help them both get to the anchor line, She hid his face mask and he let go of her.
She was struggling and sank to the bottom of the ocean.
Now this is where the suspicion of Gabe comes into play, because instead of going after her, he swam to the top to get help.
Yeah, because see up until this point, you're like, yeah, that makes like all of this sounds Highly probable right because swimming from one anchor line to another that deep to me sounds super deep Absolutely horrifying.
And if there's a strong undercurrent, yeah, you might drift and then freak out and panic, and especially because she's not an advanced diver.
Well, so the only thing that I can say, though, is that he didn't go swim down to get her.
He was probably scared that he was going to get caught in the undercurrent.
Yeah, if you're going to play devil's advocate, which is very easy to do in this case, it's like, that's the thing.
But I feel, I mean, I feel like I would want to go after my spell.
You might want to but in the situation you might not like react that way because when things like this happen your brain isn't Like really operating.
That's true. Like at a full you're just like panicking But I feel like this is one of those situations where it's like, you'll always go after your spouse.
Yeah, I would always go straight to my spouse, regardless of like a train coming.
Whoops, it's going to hit me. I'm going after him. instead of running the other way, you know?
Well, Gabe told ABC News, I don't think I was making rational choices at that point.
I don't know what I would have done had I stayed with her I don't know that there's anything that I was actually capable of doing A dive master did go down and recover Tina, and the crew worked to save her, but they couldn't.
Gabe ended up pleading guilty in Australia to manslaughter for failing to save his drowning wife after determining that his extensive diving experience and an underwater camera showed he fully could have saved her.
And there it is. And I didn't know that he had the diving experience when I first was doing this.
And I was like, oh, OK. And then the second time around, I was like, oh, well, you have experience.
And he's like, I don't know what I could have done.
Well, you're an experienced diver. Right. know what you're supposed to do.
So you could have dove and got her. Right, exactly.
He pleaded not guilty in America to murder after serving prison time in Australia for over a year.
American courts found that he had not committed murder and the charges were dismissed.
SCUBA experts in America determined that the conditions of the dive were challenging, and that Tina was an inexperienced diver who drowned in a way that was not uncommon.
But some people suspect that his U.S. trial was driven by political motives because the Attorney General championed that case and justice for Tina Watson during his reelection season.
This is really one of those that I don't think we'll ever have the real answer. for what happened here, because it is highly probable that this was an absolute accident.
Yeah, exactly. But there's some shady things in here.
Three. Number three on our countdown of honeymoons gone wrong, Shreen Dhawani.
Dewani is a British millionaire whose wife, Annie, was murdered during a carjacking in Cape Town, South Africa, while the couple was on their honeymoon.
It quickly became a high-profile case of a violent robbery gone wrong that actually points to conspiracy and still has one lingering question.
Was Shireen Dewani in on the plan? November 2010, Shreen and his wife Annie were being driven by taxi driver Zola Tongo when they were carjacked by two armed men.
Tongo was eventually let go by the gunmen, and eventually so was Shreen.
The next day, Annie is found dead in the backseat of the stolen taxi, having been shot in the head.
Oh my gosh, that's terrible. Yeah. No matter how this spins out, it's terrible.
According to the BBC, within days, the gunmen were found and arrested.
And so was the taxi driver, Zola Tongo, all charged with robbery, kidnapping, and murder.
After being arrested, the taxi driver, Tongo, pointed the finger at Shreen as the mastermind of the kidnapping plot to have his wife killed.
What? Which is like, oh, so you're going to hire these bad people.
And then it's going to be shocking to you that they turn and point the finger at you like that bad guy did it.
And what if it was just the taxi driver in these two like hit men.
Mm hmm. Why? What are they getting? Well, and then in that case, they would have killed the husband and the wife.
Exactly. Why would you keep one of them alive?
And they didn't get anything. They didn't try to get ransom.
They didn't do anything. They didn't steal anything.
What's the reason for this it doesn't make any sense the only way that this makes any kind of like twisted sense is if the husband is involved which he definitely is at I'm just saying.
But Shreen had already left the country and spent years fighting extradition to face charges in South Africa.
I don't like him. Shreen was finally brought back and tried in a case that made global headlines.
The trial unearthed that he was cheating with people he met online, but his murder charges were ultimately dismissed.
The driver was sentenced to jail for 18 years, finding that he had played a role in addition to the actual South African men involved in the carjacking.
Two prolific forensic investigators and authors untangle the story of her murder and assert that details of the case show Shreen had conversations with the driver prior to the day of the murder.
And why would he have that? Yeah, like that's not normal.
During the trial there was also confirmed conflicting testimony that said Annie wanted to get pregnant or that she actually didn't want to go on the honeymoon trip because the two of them didn't mesh well as a couple.
Uh oh. Shreen is still trying to rebuild his reputation.
Well, I hope it fails if he actually did want to murder her.
Good luck, Shreem. That last one is just, I don't know what to say about it.
Yeah. That was weird stuff. Like that one's fishy for sure.
Yeah. If the taxi driver is pointing a finger and saying like, this guy's the one who got us all to do this, It seems fishy.
Because he has no good reason for saying that.
That's the thing. He's got everything to lose and really nothing to gain.
It's not like he's going to get less time for that.
So it doesn't make sense. And then number four, I had heard of the Tina Watson case before, but hearing it again, it's confusing, but you're...
I don't know. Yeah. And I've read like accounts of it that when I first read it, I was like, oh, he did something right.
This was on purpose. And then I've read some that I'm like, this looks like an accident.
I feel like it's one of those cases that you'll just go back and forth like all the time with.
Yeah, it's another one of those that I don't think we'll ever have the answer.
That is hard to grasp. Yeah, it always is.
But these next two are gonna be good. Oh, just wait till number one.
Two. We're down to the final two spots on our countdown of Honeymoons Gone Wrong.
At number two is Ben and Catherine Mullaney.
July 12, 2008. Ben and Catherine got married in South Wales, surrounded by friends and family.
Two days later, they flew to Antigua in the Caribbean for a two-week honeymoon.
But a few weeks later, the newlyweds were laid to rest after being shot in their hotel room. and Antigua faced major attention for the crime.
The way the Guardian describes the police station near the Cocos Hotel where Ben and Catherine stayed is, a ramshackle structure on the side of a hill. its crumbling roof popped up by wooden scaffolding.
Sounds awesome. Sounds like exactly where I'd want a honeymoon.
Sounds very comforting. Yeah, yikes. Strong.
It's secure. Yeah, right? And that police station, by the way, has roughly a dozen officers.
So that paints the picture of the remoteness of this area.
Despite this being a picturesque place with a shack for a police station, it's not without its crime problems.
One of the commanding officers there stated, It's shocking.
It's not a thing you want to see happen.
Ben and Katherine spent the first few nights of the honeymoon camping in an unknown location before checking into the hotel.
On their last night around 5 a.m., two men came into their cottage shot the couple in the back of the heads and stole their cell phones, a digital camera, and a small amount of money.
It's so sad and just, like, so... Like, they said, so shocking.
And it's, like, if you... Honestly, if you came in there, they probably would have just given you all those items.
Just take it. Yeah, that's the other thing.
Now, Katherine died instantly and Ben was taken to the hospital but unfortunately died a week later.
So sad. Antigua scrambled to salvage its reputation as a tourist destination as their murders made headlines globally. these kind of things demolish tourism in these places for a little while.
It's such a hit. Yeah, it's sad, but honestly, You can't blame people for not wanting to go there.
Because think about it with Aruba and the Natalie Holloway thing.
That was a big hit to them for a while. That's the major thing that I think of with a case like this.
And you can't blame it all on the island or the country or wherever it is.
But it's hard not to think about it. Right.
A preacher who lives on the island told The Guardian, unless we really do something about all this, I don't know if we can consider ourselves a safe place, which highlights the impact crime has on local economies, like we were just saying.
We actually talked about this too a little bit in our Twisted Spring Break Crimes episode.
Exactly. Drugs, gang and inequalities have been cited as a problem for the rising crime and for a small community that can be devastating.
Oh yeah. The killers in this case luckily were found after they struck again and broke into a store to kill a shop owner oh my gosh like calm down stop doing this chill you don't need to rob people again get a job oi They were tried and convicted three years after the attack, and they never gave a motive.
Wow. Isn't that so scary? Like, there's not even a terrible motive.
Like, I just want money. Well, I think that probably was the motive.
That's what it sounds like. There's no motive here?
It's so scary and just ridiculous. Ben and Catherine's family launched the Mulaney Foundation, to support UK students with medical school ambitions like Katherine. and to keep the memory of their daughter alive.
That's so sad. At least something good came of this, but that's so sad.
Oh my God. I know what you're thinking. The episode ended and you didn't hear number one.
What was number one? Excuse me? How does the episode end without a number one?
Well, it doesn't. To hear our deep dive for the number one honeymoon gone wrong story, you have to head over to our Crime Countdown podcast feed.
So definitely do that and thank you so much for listening, guys.
And remember it's free. You can go listen to it for free on Spotify.
Yes. Even if you don't have Spotify premium, you can still listen to it.
Free, free, free. It is free. Go listen to it on Spotify.
It's free. That means it doesn't cost money.
Doesn't cost anything. Go listen to it. Number one is crazy.
Illysum. Bye. If you like Morbid, you can listen early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
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The town of Agde in France is famous for sun, sand, sea and sex.
But lately, life on the coast has taken a strange turn.
The town's mayor, a respected pillar of the community, has been arrested for corruption.
His wife claims he's been bewitched by a beautiful clairvoyant.
Then there's the mysterious phone calls that local people have been getting.
I am the Archangel Michael. The whole town has been thrown into chaos.
Mr Mayor... the mayor is unable to carry out his duties.
I would like to address you all. Legal proceedings have been initiated.
Join me, Anna Richardson, and journalist Leo Schick for The Mystic and the Mayor as we investigate a story of power, corruption, Binge all episodes of The Mystic and the Mare exclusively and ad-free right now on Wondery Plus.
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