Emily Booth, thank you for that link!
Here is a direct link to the article on the flowers. Her family started chaining down the flowers AFTER they were disappearing. So the explanation regarding the cemetary rules falls flat with me. As the flowers were taken BEFORE they were chained down.
http://www.al.com/birminghamnews/stories/index.ssf?/base/news/120125262542090.xml&coll=2&thispage=1
(snips)
A Helena police officer told an Australian coroner's inquest that he filmed the husband of a woman who drowned while on their honeymoon as he used bolt cutters to remove flowers from her grave.
Sgt. Brad Flynn, the lead American investigator into the cause of the Oct. 22, 2003, Australian drowning death of Christina "Tina" Thomas Watson, testified via video link Wednesday night.
Watson's parents, Tommy and Cindy Thomas, filed theft reports in the fall of 2005, stating that flowers and gifts were continually disappearing from their daughter's grave at a Pelham cemetery, even after they began bolting them to the ground, Flynn said.
"We communicated this to the Queensland police, who were investigating Tina's death, and we decided to set up surveillance," Flynn said. "The tape showed Gabe Watson taking cutters from his vehicle and cutting the bolt."
But one of Gabe Watson's American attorneys, Bob Austin, said his client's actions were nothing more than adhering to cemetery regulations.
"The rules at the cemetery are that no permanent fixture can be placed on a grave site, and this was a steel rod and chain hooked to plastic flowers," Austin said.
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