Unsolved Jaws meets Seachange

[Ghostwriter]

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/...-meets-seachange/story-e6frea6u-1226719163656

An extract from the article

By Friday morning news was turning to rumour. On Saturday, someone called "Joan'' posted a comment on a blog that caught the tone of muttered conversations up and down the coast: Howard Rodd sounds like a bit of a jinx to have around. Bugger going fishing with him.
The torment of Howard Rodd had begun. The sea is cruel but so is gossip.
DEPENDING on who's telling the story, Howard Rodd is the luckiest - or the unluckiest - fisherman in Australia. He's either Jonah or blessed.
In 40 years in perhaps the most dangerous peacetime occupation of all, Rodd has been involved in four deadly dramas and survived them all. In two of those incidents, men have vanished - swallowed by the ocean or what lives in it.
It is common for fishermen to be lost at sea. A granite monument at Port Lincoln wharf has 48 names engraved on it, with the first dating to 1959. That's nearly one a year - and doesn't count those who made it to the cemetery, nor all those who would have perished in the decades before that.
It is Howard Rodd's luck he was the last to see alive the last two named on the rock, Danny Thorpe and Peter Clarkson. Coincidences like that make people talk.

Killing someone at sea would make the safest crime scene.

 

[Jakko]

I have a link to all of this through family. Horrible way to go.

 

[LosBeatles]

Very interesting read thanks

I remember reading a while ago about the increasing clashes between Abalone Divers and the tour operators attracting sharks to the boats. It seems incredible this is allowed to happen.

 

[Jakko]

The victim Peter Clarkson was also in the discovery channel show "Abalone Wars" not long before this all happened. I'm yet to hear of a decent motive for murder, even then the skipper would have had other ways of killing him apart from a bloody struggle on deck (air supply is controlled from the surface). From memory in the documentary he dived without a cage most times.

Its easy to ask why he didn't call emergency services or drop a bouy but if he saw what he claims, he wouldn't exactly be thinking straight. I think he saw his mate get chewed up like a piece of bait and went into a kind of frozen shock.

 

[CAS79]

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/...-meets-seachange/story-e6frea6u-1226719163656

An extract from the article

By Friday morning news was turning to rumour. On Saturday, someone called "Joan'' posted a comment on a blog that caught the tone of muttered conversations up and down the coast: Howard Rodd sounds like a bit of a jinx to have around. Bugger going fishing with him.
The torment of Howard Rodd had begun. The sea is cruel but so is gossip.
DEPENDING on who's telling the story, Howard Rodd is the luckiest - or the unluckiest - fisherman in Australia. He's either Jonah or blessed.
In 40 years in perhaps the most dangerous peacetime occupation of all, Rodd has been involved in four deadly dramas and survived them all. In two of those incidents, men have vanished - swallowed by the ocean or what lives in it.
It is common for fishermen to be lost at sea. A granite monument at Port Lincoln wharf has 48 names engraved on it, with the first dating to 1959. That's nearly one a year - and doesn't count those who made it to the cemetery, nor all those who would have perished in the decades before that.
It is Howard Rodd's luck he was the last to see alive the last two named on the rock, Danny Thorpe and Peter Clarkson. Coincidences like that make people talk.

Killing someone at sea would make the safest crime scene.

Indeed it is Joseph. Great lines like this that would look good on the cover of a book.

In fact I’m sure if you wrote a fictional account the Advertiser may consider it as their factual version of events. While this was an interesting read I googled the history of the articles and The Advertiser’s been on this guy for the last couple of years. Without a witness, a forensic piece of evidence or a motive they are accusing him, but not bravely, with phrases like "people talk". They are doing so in a cowards manner.

I also grew up in an area not too far away from where fishing boats and abalone divers worked. Accidents happened. Divers didn’t even need shark attacks, At times they simply just died under water. It’s sadly part of the industry they work in. And in country towns people talk and if your linked by family to a criminal such Rodds son, than people will talk you out of town.

 

[jimbler]

Don't know why, but this story popped up in the top 5 read articles today on news.com.au earlier today. He's had some incredibly bad luck losing two mates at sea in two different incidents.

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/...k=5b698c760d752808ffdd15ec2d7c0747-1501118561

Mr Rodd - a fisherman with about 40 years' experience - told the inquest he had stopped functioning when he realised the man he had worked with for the past eight years had been taken.

It was this confused state of mind, he claims, which meant he:

DID not activate his Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB).

FAILED to realise when he tossed the anchor overboard that he had untied it three days earlier.

DID not attempt to contact emergency services using his mobile phone or radio.

One of the last people who claimed to see Mr Clarkson alive that day was fellow abalone diver Darryl Carrison.

Mr Carrison told the inquest he "still to this day" believed Mr Clarkson was on the deck of the boat shelling abalone and that Mr Rodd was diving.

Mr Rodd had agreed on Monday - four days after the attack - to go out to sea with police to help determine the location of the incident, but an hour later Mr Rodd's lawyer Michael Coates had contacted police to withdraw that permission.

Coroners finding 2011

http://www.courts.sa.gov.au/CoronersFindings/Lists/Coroners Findings/Attachments/555/CLARKSON Peter Stephen.pdf

^ Page 14 - WTF? Doesn't call Emergency services on his way back to shore, but does call his solicitor?



--------------------------------

Previous Shark Attack in 2000

http://sharkattacksurvivors.com/shark_attack/viewtopic.php?t=319

Coroners finding 2000

http://www.courts.sa.gov.au/CoronersFindings/Lists/Coroners Findings/Attachments/225/THORPE Danny.pdf

 

[demondavey]

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/...-meets-seachange/story-e6frea6u-1226719163656

An extract from the article

By Friday morning news was turning to rumour. On Saturday, someone called "Joan'' posted a comment on a blog that caught the tone of muttered conversations up and down the coast: Howard Rodd sounds like a bit of a jinx to have around. Bugger going fishing with him.
The torment of Howard Rodd had begun. The sea is cruel but so is gossip.
DEPENDING on who's telling the story, Howard Rodd is the luckiest - or the unluckiest - fisherman in Australia. He's either Jonah or blessed.
In 40 years in perhaps the most dangerous peacetime occupation of all, Rodd has been involved in four deadly dramas and survived them all. In two of those incidents, men have vanished - swallowed by the ocean or what lives in it.
It is common for fishermen to be lost at sea. A granite monument at Port Lincoln wharf has 48 names engraved on it, with the first dating to 1959. That's nearly one a year - and doesn't count those who made it to the cemetery, nor all those who would have perished in the decades before that.
It is Howard Rodd's luck he was the last to see alive the last two named on the rock, Danny Thorpe and Peter Clarkson. Coincidences like that make people talk.

Killing someone at sea would make the safest crime scene.

Not necessarily. Sure you can murder someone and dump the body, but if you don't do a proper clean up job their can still be significant DNA evidence to prove otherwise.

There is also the issue of the body resurfacing. So many factors could cause the body to resurface.

 

[demondavey]

It wouldn't be uncommon at all that a very large Great White took him. The waters there are full of large great whites and if you're in the water for long enough you could very well come across one in its travels. It's also not uncommon that they'll attack when you're surfacing, that's how they behave.

A great white will spend a long time out of sight stalking the victim, then when the victim approaches the surface they'll appear straight under you charging at top speed.

If anyone wants to know more, google Paul Buckland Shark Attack'.

You've also got to remember that this guy has probably witnessed his colleague get taken by a Great White. Not exactly pleasant. He would've literally been ripped apart, probably bitten in half if the shark was big enough.

Most people would be in serious shock post seeing that.