Dateline: Unforgettable is delving into the death of Shelley Tyre, who drowned while scuba diving near a shipwreck in the British Virgin Islands. Her husband, David Swain, was convicted of her murder in 2009 but later had his conviction overturned.
In 1999, Tyre and Swain were six years married and on the last day of their vacation in the Caribbean when Tyre disappeared while on a dive. Her husband, a diving expert, had re-surfaced without her and claimed he didn’t see what happened.
Unfortunately, Tyre’s body was found floating at a depth of about 80 feet. Her scuba mask had been damaged, and the mouthpiece was missing. Her swim fin was found embedded in a sandbar.
The local authorities ruled the case a tragic accident, and Swain traveled with the body back to their home in Rhode Island.
However, Tyre’s parents refused to believe Swain’s version of events. They were convinced Swain had murdered their daughter by attacking her underwater and ripping off her mask.
They filed a civil wrongful death lawsuit against Swain and won. A jury ruled that Swain had caused Tyre’s death and rewarded her family with $3.5 million in damages. Swain declared bankruptcy.
Caribbean prosecutors charged David Swain with killing Shelley Tyre
The publicity that arose from the civil lawsuit reached the British Virgin Islands and eventually led to the local authorities deciding to charge Swain with murder.
Watch the Latest on our YouTube ChannelThe prosecution claimed that Swain was having an affair with a chiropractor in Rhode Island and that he killed his wife so he could claim her estate of over $600,000 and run off with the other woman.
The defense team argued that an unreliable post-mortem exam on the remains meant that a medical emergency, such as a stroke or heart attack, could not be ruled out.
A jury subsequently sided with the prosecution and convicted Swain of murder, sentencing him to serve at least 25 years of a life sentence. The authorities described it as a near-perfect crime.
David Swain conviction thrown out in Shelley Tyre murder case
But the case still didn’t end there. In 2011, a panel of three judges from the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court of Appeal overturned the conviction. The judges said they found problems with the instructions read to the jury in the trial.
Swain was not declared innocent but was immediately freed and allowed to return to Rhode Island. An appeals court declined a retrial, citing that too much time had passed.
At the time, Swain’s daughter from a previous marriage, Jennifer Swain Bloom, said she was elated with the result. She told reporters, “I have known the whole time he is innocent. I knew that the system would eventually agree.”
Dateline: Unforgettable airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on Oxygen.