WARWICK, Rhode Island (16 Nov 2007) — In the 8˝ years since their daughter died while scuba diving with her husband David Swain in Tortola, Richard and Lisa Tyre of Jamestown have often criticized authorities in the British Virgin Islands for a slipshod investigation into her death. But a day after Swain was arrested on a murder warrant from Tortola, Shelley Tyre's parents thanked those same authorities yesterday. "I am tremendously grateful to the people and the government of Tortola that they have gotten around to it," said Lisa Tyre, 78, speaking in the law office of their lawyer, J. Renn Olenn. "Took a long time, but we're there and gratitude is literally overflowing." "There" as the Tyres define it, is one step from seeing Swain, a former Jamestown Town Council member, returned to Tortola to face a charge that he drowned their daughter on a vacation in March 1999. Federal marshals arrested Swain at his Jamestown scuba shop Wednesday. A federal magistrate ordered him jailed until an extradition hearing begins Wednesday. In an affidavit accompanying their request for Swain's return, Tortola authorities say "we have ruled out all other possible causes of death leaving homicide as the rational conclusion and then eliminated all other perpetrators but Swain." The affidavit goes on: "The evidence shows that her drowning was caused by violent force by a human and rules out any other possible cause for her drowning. Swain was her dive partner and the only person present when she died." Tortola officials say they came to their conclusion after reviewing the sworn depositions and evidence which Olenn gathered over years of investigation and presented before a jury in February 2006 in a civil wrongful-death suit against Swain. At the end of a two-week trial, the jury deliberated about two hours before finding that Swain had drowned his 46-year-old wife with malicious forethought. Olenn had speculated Swain killed his wife while cultivating the interest in another woman and to reap the financial gain of insurance policies and clear ownership of the dive shop he ran but she supported. Many of those same witnesses used during the civil trial have agreed to return to Tortola to help prosecute Swain criminally, Olenn said yesterday. Those witnesses include: Bruce A. Hyma, chief medical examiner for Miami Dade County. He ruled Tyre's death a "homicidal drowning" during the civil trial after he inspected Shelley Tyre's broken scuba mask, snorkel and fin and learned of her diving expertise and good health.Thomas Neuman, an authority on diving medicine. He testified that based on the amount of air remaining in Tyre's tank, she had been underwater for only 8 minutes before she died. According to the Tortola affidavit, "Swain testified that he was with Shelley for, at least, the first 10 minutes of the dive. He therefore had to have been with her when she drew her last breath."Christian Thwaites, a friend of Swain's at the time. He, his wife, Bernice, and their young son accompanied Tyre and Swain on the scuba vacation. The Thwaites family were all aboard the group's sailboat, Caribbean Soul, when Swain surfaced alone about 40 minutes after entering the water with Tyre. Thwaites dove in and eventually found Tyre's body on the ocean floor in 80 feet of water. In his deposition played during the trial, Thwaites said he stopped performing CPR after he brought her up at Swain's request. Swain said she was already dead. Thwaites also said that when he attempted to send out a "mayday" call for help "Swain told him not to as he did not want everyone coming around," the affidavit reports. The affidavit is a virtual summary of the civil case Olenn made against Swain. | | Richard and Lisa Tyre. Their daughter, Shelley Tyre died in 1999 while scuba diving in Tortola with PADI 5-Star dive shop owner David Swain, who has been charged with murdering his wife. The Tyres said yesterday they hadn't decided whether they would travel to Tortola if Swain, 51, is extradited. While the British Virgin Islands has a similar criminal justice system it does not have a "speedy trial rule" which defendants can use to expedite their cases. Consequently, Olenn said, Swain could spend more than six months in prison before his trial begins. Like the Tyres, Olenn struck a conciliatory tone yesterday with the Tortola police investigators. Olenn said Tyre died on a Friday and the Police Department didn't have anyone with diving expertise working over the weekend. Authorities properly prevented Swain from leaving the island until the medical examiner had performed his autopsy, on the following Monday. But it wasn't until the next day, Tuesday, that a local dive shop owner went to the police with questions about Shelley Tyre's death. By then, said Olenn, "there was nothing they could do." Swain had returned to Rhode Island and investigators' hands were tied by geography. Once armed with the successful civil finding, Olenn said, authorities moved quickly. 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