Oxygen’s Dateline: Unforgettable will revisit Shelley Tyre’s strange scuba diving death in the British Virgin Islands in 1999. The episode titled “The Last Dive” airs on the network on Wednesday, January 3, 2024, at 8 p.m. ET.
The official synopsis for the upcoming episode reads, “A couple takes a scuba-diving trip to the British Virgin Islands; on their last dive, one of them surfaces but the other does not; police quickly suspect the drowning was no accident; now Dennis Murphy gives this unforgettable story a second look.”
According to the Guardian, Tyre and her husband, David Swain, were holidaying on Tortola in the British Virgin Islands in March 1999. The couple were experienced divers. However, during their last dive at the Twin Tugs on March 12, 1999, Tyre died in a tragic accident. Authorities ruled the 46-year-old’s death as an accident, but her family accused Swain of killing her.
Before the incident, Tyre was a middle school principal at Thayer Academy and had resigned shortly before her death. She was Swain’s second wife. The couple had been married for about five years.
Did David Swain murder Shelley Tyre & Why?
Tortola authorities had initially ruled Shelley Tyre’s death to be an accident while scuba diving with her husband, David Swain, in March 1999. They believed that Tyre drowned near an isolated shipwreck at a depth of 80 feet in an accident. However, her family remained suspicious and accused Swain of killing her.
The Cinemaholic reported that Swian collected more than $600,000 from his late wife’s estate. He used the same money to make expensive renovations to the dive shop, began taking vacations, and even started dating. A year after the incident, the victim’s family hired an attorney and a team of experts to investigate the supposed accident.
Reportedly, the experts found that Shelley Tyre’s mask was damaged, her mouthpiece was missing, and one of her flippers was stuck in a sandbar. This suggested a violent underwater confrontation. The Tyres believed Swain murdered their daughter for financial reasons and filed a wrongful death civil lawsuit against him.
The Guardian reported that during the trial, Tyre’s parents’ attorney said that Swain cut off Tyre’s air supply. He then held her underwater until she drowned. The lawyer alleged that the accused killed the 46-year-old as he was pursuing a relationship with another woman named Mary Basler. He also knew that divorce would leave him with no money.
Florida medical examiner Bruce Hyma ruled Tyre’s death as “homicidal drowning.” He believed, “Terminal violence…deprived her of her air supply.” Other experts testified that her broken mask and missing fin, among other evidence, suggested that her death was deliberate.
The Rhode Island civil trial found David Swain responsible for Shelley Tyre’s death. Following the guilty verdict, British Virgin Islands prosecutors also charged him with murder. They alleged that Swain killed Tyre because he was in love with another woman. They also argued that he wanted to obtain his wife’s money, as per The Patriot Ledger.
Swain stood trial in 2009, and a jury convicted him of murder, following which he received 25 years to life in prison. Two years later, a three-judge panel with the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court of Appeal overturned the verdict. Nonetheless, The Tyres’ lawyer J. Renn Olenn said in a comment, “No judicial body has declared him innocent.” Olenn also cited the previous two trials when “two different juries found him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Dateline: Unforgettable airs with Shelley Tyre’s case on Oxygen on January 3, 2023.
