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In times past, Tinder referred to a dry, flammable material used to light a fire. Today, it's an app that kindles a different kind of flame. Tinder, as millennials and more recent generations know it, is an online dating and geo-social networking tool used by many to find love, lust, and, in rare cases, victims. Since its inception in 2012,
The smartphone app has become something of a cultural phenomenon. Forget about trying to find a flame in a bar. Now, singletons and adulterous significant others alike window shop from a dating pool of their own making, tweaking, and tailoring it to suit their tastes based on age and distance. The search for a soulmate or a one-night stand has never been more streamlined.
Users browse through dating profiles sporting only names, ages, cleverly crafted one-liners, and a handful of hand-picked photos. A swift swipe to the left rids their feeds of unpalatable profiles. However, should they like what they see, the user will swipe right. If their Tinderella or Tinderfella responds in kind, they will get the opportunity to whisper sweet nothings into each other's inboxes.
A match made in heaven, or haste, as is often the case. Nine years after its launch, Tinder boasted over 65 billion matches. Amongst the billions of matches lay one particular pairing that turned deadly. In 2014, Tinder's Ero struck Gable Tosti and Warina Wright, connecting two people who would have otherwise never met. Warina, who was holidaying in Australia, was delighted to match with the tanned, chiseled carpet layer
Tragically, she had no idea of the demons he faced. Gable's Tinder profile, like every other, was a facade that failed to mention the many facets of his dark side. Warina wasn't aware that he had intentionally slept with almost 200 women in the past four hours. She couldn't have known that each of his sexual encounters were meticulously cataloged and all of his dates and nights out obsessively recorded.
Worse still, she had no idea that he suffered from a personality so disordered that a psychiatrist once labeled him as partially disabled. Of course, with little else to go off, how could she have any idea? Warina was blinded by Gable's endearing blue eyes, strong jawline, and superficial sweet talk. She inevitably agreed to meet up with him, a decision that would ultimately cost her her life.
On August 7th at 8:45pm, Warina met Gable at Cavill Mall in Surfer's Paradise. Sometime during their date, she sent a Facebook message to her sister gushing about meeting the Australian equivalent of Sam Winchester, a character from her favorite TV show, Supernatural. That was the last time anyone heard from the 26-year-old. Six hours later, Warina Wright plunged 14 stories to her death.
I'm sure you've already presumed that today's story is a sad but open and shut case. It certainly seemed that way. However, the truth is never black and white. Warina's death is shrouded in a gray cloud of mystery, one that incited a feeding frenzy as the media circled several pertinent questions. Is a simple snapshot of a stranger's life enough to put hours in their hands? What constitutes the crime of culpability? Can a man commit murder from behind a locked door?
Well, dear listeners, it's time to find out. Part 1: All About Dignity, Equality, Fairness, and What's Right Warina Tegbuno Wright, or "Ree" as her friends fondly remember her, was so deserving of a long and full life. Of course, many of us are. But her unwavering commitment to caring for others, familiar or not, was truly remarkable and a rarity in this often cruel world.
The star of our story, who fell from the sky so suddenly, first lit up our planet on May 19th, 1988.
She was born in the Philippines to Warren Wright, her namesake, and his Filipino wife, Mirzabeth Tagpuno. A few years later, she was joined by her younger sister, Mariza. In 1991, little Warina left her homeland with her family and settled in Porirura, a New Zealand city just 20 minutes north of Wellington.
She and her sister were enrolled in a Seventh-day Adventist primary school in the neighboring city of Lower Hutt. Unlike their mother, neither were devout believers, though it certainly influenced how they viewed God and the afterlife. Orina went on to attend Tawa College, a state secondary school where she was praised by her former principal for her proficiency in English and technology and for always doing the right thing.
Somewhere in between graduating and entering the working world, Warina landed a job at a Kiwi Bank call center nearby the Wellington waterfront. Her cubicle was one of many crammed into an ugly, weather-worn office tower. It's unlikely that her little corner came with a view of the dense, deep green hills that surrounded it. Still, she was determined to brighten up her desk. It was decorated with rows of Dragon Ball Z figurines, miniature mementos of what made her, her,
After clocking off for the day, Warina would return to the home she shared with Marisa. The humble, white brick house was hidden behind a high fence and nestled in a quiet street in Ipuni, a working class suburb of Lower Hutt. It quickly became a sanctuary for their handful of girlfriends, who often spent their weekends there immersed in role-playing video games such as Final Fantasy. These same friends were devastated by Warina's perplexing death.
but their grief quickly turned bitter as the media sensationalized her bashing. Their "Ri" was reduced to "The Death Plunge Woman," a tasteless title that stuck. However, according to them, Warina was far more than a juicy news story. She was a tech-savvy artist, photographer, and lover of all things nerdy.
She relished spontaneous road trips, getting stuck into conspiracy theories, and hunting for the best eBay bargains. More so, a friend has since said that Warina was all about dignity, equality, fairness, and what's right. The opinionated gamer was revered for standing her ground when it mattered, but remaining gentle in her approach.
She was remembered as being motherly and boundless in her compassion, caring for anyone within reach, but none more than her mother and sister. That said, her kindness wasn't reserved for humans alone. Warina was also a die-hard animal lover, something that still manages to make her father's tired but intense eyes twinkle even today, long after he lost her. Warren Wright has since reminisced about his daughter's deep love for animals,
When asked where she got it from, he replied, "Well, that would be me. I have cats as guard dogs. I never trust a human being. I taught both my daughters that." And then Warina went and trusted him. Part 2: Him Warina's past is aglow with warm memories and touching moments that illuminate the woman she once was. A tender, caring soul with a fiery disposition. Gable Tostee's past, on the other hand, was far darker.
Still, it too paints an apt picture of the man he turned out to be. Gable was born somewhere in Australia sometime in 1986. That's all I know and about as much digging as I'm willing to do into the matter. He grew up on the Gold Coast, a seaside city of Queensland populated by the foreign and affluent, where he lived with his younger brother Tennyson, his mother Helene, and his father Gray.
Gable attended a prestigious private school in the area and, after graduating in 2003, he joined the throngs of fresh schoolies as they celebrated their freedom in true Aussie fashion. Schoolies Week, as it's called, sees new high school graduates descend upon their local night spots for three weeks of parties, booze, and bad decisions. Gable was no stranger to the drunken shenanigans of the long-standing Australian tradition.
The Toste family lived around the corner from Surfer's Paradise, a Gold Coast suburb known for its pristine beaches, gnarly breaks, and particularly wild nightlife, which attracted thousands of schoolies every December. Finally, it was his turn to let loose. However, for Gable and two of his mates, Schoolies Week offered far more than booze-ups. It offered a business opportunity.
The trio forged countless fake IDs for underage schoolies. Astonishingly, they managed to take home $30,000 before the police finally caught on, resulting in a court appearance and an exceptionally concerning psychiatric evaluation, in Gable's case at least.
Ian Curtis, the court-appointed psychiatrist who assessed Gable, concluded that he was socially distant, emotionally estranged, lacking in empathy, and hugely disadvantaged in the normal social world. According to Curtis, the 18-year-old's social and emotional difficulties left him somewhere on the autism spectrum, with an additional diagnosis of severe obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Gable somehow evaded conviction and, apparently, any form of mental health support. The latter was eventually at least partially addressed six years later when he started seeing a psychiatrist for OCD, social anxiety, and depression. That said, it didn't seem to alter the course of his self-destructive lifestyle. Gable cut ties with his school friends and shied away from making any more. Nevertheless,
No matter how hard he tried to ignore it, he still craved camaraderie. This led him down a dangerous path that started with a bodybuilding forum, of all things. At first, his posts were restricted to questions about fat-burning supplements and non-dairy diets. However, over the years, they grew progressively more disturbing. Conversations about faith and the existence of God became pleas for advice on getting laid.
Gable soon became fixated on the latter, and his posts quickly went from desperate to predatory. He spoke of trying more aggressive approaches and rooting girls in the back of his car. It wasn't enough though, he wanted more. Part Three: Playboy or Predator? By June of 2012, Gable had moved into his now infamous Surfer's Paradise bachelor pad and bagged his 100th one night stand, a milestone he had been eager to get out of the way.
The girl had apparently been a big drop in his standards. Still, he thought he would feel different. He expected to ooze masculinity and power like a real alpha man. Instead, he lay awake and alone. His only company the few body-obsessed forum members who responded to his latest post. Some were awestruck, begging for his secrets. Others were unimpressed, accusing him of being insecure and narcissistic.
Though Gable had previously boasted that he wouldn't touch anything below a 7 out of 10, he admitted that he was desperate, something he attributed to low self-esteem. He certainly wasn't wrong. However, Gable's plummeting confidence didn't stop him from harassing women at nightclubs across the Gold Coast. Allegedly, of course. He was inevitably banned from those bars for what several managers later described as "creepy behavior." It didn't matter, though.
Tinder was launched soon after. Whilst the app's first wave of women users was mostly looking for dinner dates and steady relationships, Gable was on the hunt for no-strings-attached sex. There's nothing wrong with that. However, his rants on the forum about being rejected were reminiscent of the entitled, misogynistic incels of today.
He blasted his over 250 Tinder matches for being frigid and griped that he was sick of time and money wasting bitches. Even when Gable got what he wanted, he returned the favor by shaming the girls on the forum, calling them "sloots", sharing their pictures, and describing their intimate moments in excruciating detail. He even lambasted one poor girl after she accused him of groping her, posting:
What kind of stupid sleut meets up with a guy, goes into his bedroom, then has no intention of doing anything? Alarmingly, Gable's predatory behavior wasn't the only thing spiraling out of control. His binge drinking had gotten out of hand as early as 2011, well before reaching his obscene milestone. That year, it saw him driving into oncoming traffic and straight back onto the police's radar. Now, it consumed him.
Gable habitually drank himself into a stupor, hoping to soothe his social anxiety. It worked. Too well, perhaps. He often blacked out and woke up with little to no recollection of what happened the night before, who he slept with, or how he got them back to his apartment. Any rational individual would seek help at this point, but not Gable. He was by no means rational.
Instead, he decided to leave his cell phone on record, capturing his nights out and anyone he shared them with on audio. By July of 2014, Gable's benders had reached a breaking point. His rap sheet was already riddled with drunken misdemeanor offenses. This time, however, he crossed a dangerous line.
After partying well into the night at Splendor in the Gras Festival in Byron Bay, Gable was clocked, driving 150 kilometers an hour with passengers in the car. He led the police on a high-speed chase across the border. Reaching 195 kilometers an hour before road spikes brought him to a screeching halt. Gable was four times over the legal limit. Months later, the 28-year-old would serve jail time for recklessly endangering the lives of others.
he sent an apology letter to the police that November. "I am thankful that it happened before something potentially much worse happened," he wrote. Of course, by then, it already had. Just five days after his drunk driving incident, Gable Toste matched with Warina Wright. Part 4: 199 Minutes. Unbelievably, the information you have just been privy to was never heard by the jury in court.
It was deemed irrelevant to the charge at hand and was omitted to protect Gable from being convicted based on his character. That being said, I chose to reveal this information to you now because I believe that it's a crucial ingredient in a recipe for disaster. A disaster that ended in death. On July 29th, 2014, Warina Wright landed at Gold Coast Airport
She had made the trip to celebrate her friend's wedding, but decided to turn it into a two-week holiday complete with skydiving, partying, and a hotel room in Surfer's Paradise. She hoped it would lift her spirits. Just before leaving New Zealand, where Rina and the guy she was seeing had ended things rather abruptly, she needed a distraction. Three days later, Tinder gave her one. Gable Tosti. You look delicious, he typed.
It wasn't the most gentlemanly way to put it, but he was right. Despite not thinking so herself, Warina was gorgeous. High cheekbones and shapely brows framed big, brown, lustrous eyes. Her petite frame was hugged by naturally tanned skin and a mane of raven black hair. Gable liked what he saw. Apparently, so did Warina.
The 26-year-old felt that the carpet layer resembled Sam Winchester, her Hollywood heartthrob, and was eager to meet him in person. The pair linked up one week later on Thursday, August 7th. Cavill Mall's security cameras captured the 6'1" Gable stooping down and pulling his 5'3" date in for an awkward but customary embrace.
They made a brief appearance at a local Surfer's Paradise pub before heading to a nearby bottle store where Gable purchased a six-pack of Two Hees Extra Dry Lager. A quarter hour after their uncomfortable hug, the pair entered Avalon Apartments and rode the elevator to the 14th floor. Tragically, Warina would take an entirely different route back to the first.
According to Gable, once inside his bachelor pad, the pair wasted no time getting wasted and ended up having sex. Eventually, they emerged from the bedroom and went out to the balcony, where they snapped a few selfies. Warina was captured in all her quirky glory as she pulled faces, flashed peace signs, and poked her tongue out at the camera. Gable stood beside her, bare-chested and sporting a smoldering smirk.
Warina posted the selfies to her Facebook page as proof that she was on a date with Australia's Sam Winchester. Drinking with him, woot, her post read. It seems that she felt safe with Gable at that stage. Little did she know, however, he wasn't concerned about how she felt. At 12.56 a.m., he reached into his pocket and discreetly pressed the record button on his cell phone. He turned it off 199 minutes later, but by then,
Warina Wright was long dead. In a shocking turn of events, just after 2:20 am, Warina plummeted past 14 stories of apartments and slammed into the concrete floor over 150 feet below. Gable sat in his lounge, breathing heavily, but making no move to check on her or call 000, which is Australia's version of 911. After 38 seconds, he reached for his cell phone and dialed.
He heard his lawyer's automated voicemail, followed by a high-pitched beep. Then, the faint wail of sirens. Gable leapt to his feet, stumbled out of his apartment and down a fire escape, blending into the trickle of clubbers who hadn't yet gone home. After staggering around for nearly an hour, he grabbed some pizza on Cavill Avenue. Gable inhaled the greasy slice, watching the red and blue lights flickering at the base of Avalon Apartments as he did.
Eventually, at 3:23 AM, he called his father, said his father Gray. Part 5: Oh God, she's coming over the balcony. The police arrived at the scene at 2:25 AM, just two minutes after receiving a frantic call from Gabrielle Collier Widener. Moments before dialing triple zero, she had been woken by shouting and banging coming from the apartment directly above hers. She heard a loud thud, then silence.
Suddenly, a woman started screaming "no" over and over again. Gabrielle rushed into her lounge, just in time to see a body hurtle past her balcony. First responders could do nothing for the woman other than watch as a forensic team photographed the over 80 injuries that covered her mangled corpse. Officers from the Queensland Police Service inspected the gruesome scene, looking for anything that could help them identify the woman and contact her next of kin.
They found nothing. No purse, no ID, and no phone. They couldn't note down any identifiable features either. The woman's body had all but folded over itself, so much so that it was impossible to determine her height or build. All the officers could do was find out which balcony she had fallen from and why. They entered Avalon Apartments and rode the elevator to the 13th floor, where they interviewed Gabrielle Collier Widener.
Gabrielle shook as she told the officers exactly what she had told the 000 dispatcher. However, there was something else that she thought they should know. This wasn't the first time that screams had come from her upstairs neighbor's apartment. Just two months earlier, she had heard a woman repeatedly shouting "no" in the same terrified tone as the one who now lay smashed on the sidewalk below.
After taking Gabrielle's statement, the officers moved on to the apartment directly below hers. Inside, they found Emily Ellis, her boyfriend Ryan Martin, and her friend Nick Casey. The trio had been awake when the commotion above began and raced out onto Emily's balcony to find out what was causing it. Their statements were as perplexing as they were spine-chilling. Emily told the police that she first heard yelling and banging.
Then, the near-incoherent voice of a girl crying, "I just want to go home. Please let me go home." After rushing outside, the trio looked up to find the source and, to their horror, they saw a woman dangling from the balcony two stories above. "Oh God! She's coming over! She's coming over the balcony!" Emily had gasped. Nick Casey, her friend, tried to tell the woman that she couldn't get down that way and had to go back in.
He watched her twist her body and extend a leg as if trying to reach the balcony below. Then, she stiffened and slipped. The last thing the trio saw was a flash of her petrified face as she plummeted past. Now that the police knew which balcony the woman had fallen from, finding out who lived there was easy. His name was Gable Toste.
Interestingly, the Gold Coast local was nowhere to be found, unbeknownst to them. After insisting that she had jumped from his balcony of her own accord, Gable was fetched by his father and driven to the Tosti residence in the neighboring suburb of Carrara. He arrived at the station with his solicitor at 11:00 AM the following morning. However, he was anything but cooperative.
Despite being interrogated by the police for hours, Gable refused to say a word. A forensic examination was ordered and the 28-year-old was inspected by a doctor, who found a handful of small wounds on his body. With no evidence to hold him any longer, Gable was released. The police were eventually able to identify their victim as Warina Wright and immediately notified her family.
However, they couldn't explain what had caused her fatal fall. It initially seemed like a tragic accident, but Gable's suspicious behavior and Warina's terrified pleading pointed to something more. Just one day after her broken body was found, investigators searched a Toyota Avalon belonging to the Tostees. They discovered a Sony Xperia cell phone in the driver's side door compartment that harbored a crucial piece of evidence.
A 199 minute audio recording titled "Session 24, Part 6, Session 24." The tape captured Gable and Warina's drunken date, including the moment she fell to her death. Finally, investigators could get a glimpse into what led to Warina's grisly demise. However, after listening to the recording,
it became evident that the question of who was responsible for her fall would be a difficult one to answer. It began with the soft strums of an acoustic guitar. James Blunt crooned "Bonfire Heart," a song about the bittersweet nuances of human connection. "How apt." "Don't go, baby," Gable pleaded. He suggested that they get some food, but Warina wasn't hungry. She was far too drunk. The music seemed to change the mood.
As James Blunt's serenade was replaced by Tyga's track Faded, Gable offered his date another drink. Though supposedly vodka, it was more akin to moonshine. He distilled it himself in his kitchen sink. After about five minutes of drunken chit-chat, Warina, who usually stuck to beer, slurred that she was psycho drunk. She could barely speak. Rude by magic started to play, and Warina started to play fight.
It was a bit rough. Gable filled her glass with more moonshine, then more and more. The more the pair drank, the more their night together deteriorated. Their incoherent small talk turned into conversations about God. "There are no gods. We just discussed this," Gable argued. "There are gods everywhere," Orina replied. She continued to play fight with him, but with her inhibitions shattered, she started to take it too far.
Their discussions became punctuated by the occasional "Ow!" as she punched him. He didn't seem to mind. "Shut up or I'm gonna make you cum again," Gable teased. Warina digressed, talking about her late and beloved dog and her belief in the afterlife. "We die, that's it. Throw me off the balcony," Gable insisted. He then stated that food, sleep, and sex are the three best things in the world. Warina disagreed. "World is justice," she said.
Just over 20 minutes into the recording, Warina was already paralytic and her speech unintelligible. She started groaning and shouting Forrest Gump over and over before declaring that she was a ninja. Gable repeatedly offered her more moonshine, ignoring her garbled outbursts. At 1:35 AM, the music stopped. Warina became confused. She wanted to leave, but couldn't understand where her things were and quickly grew belligerent.
Gable, who was far more sober than her, collected her belongings for her. However, Warina was too drunk to make sense of what was happening. She accused him of stealing her phone and threatened to call the police. An argument broke out. Are you going to Muay Thai me? Because I will fucking destroy your jaw! Warina yelled. Gable sighed, saying he should have never given her so much to drink. All of a sudden, the chaos was replaced by calm.
Gable suggested that Warina spend the night at his apartment. "Most tolerant person in the world," he explained. Warina countered that she was the most tolerant, insisting that she would help anyone in need. "You're just a bit violent though," Gable retorted. Once again, the pair became lost in nonsensical banter. The rambling continued until 2:12 AM when Warina began playing with small decorative stones. "Ow!" Gable complained as she pelted him with the pebbles.
Suddenly, his tone switched from patient and playful to intense and menacing. He tackled her to the ground, saying, That's more than enough. You four not your welcome. You're not my kind of girl. You have to leave. Part 7. Just Let Me Go Home That, dear listeners, was the moment that the pair's Tinder date took a dark turn.
Gable was fed up with Warina's drunken antics, despite feeding her the alcohol that fueled it. Still, his frustration was understandable. She was well past the point of being good company. That said, what Gable did next was controversial, to say the least. Warina whimpered, struggling to breathe as Gable pressed her face into the carpet. Okay, it's all good. Hey, it's all good. She slurred between panicked breaths.
Gable called her fucking insane before uttering a barely concealed threat. You're lucky I haven't chucked you off my balcony, you goddamn little psycho bitch, he hissed. For a moment, the only intelligible sound was Warina's faint, rapid panting. What? What? Got something to say? Say it. Gable taunted. She struggled to speak. Her mouth crushed against the carpet, but managed to utter one final dig. You're a sexist, she murmured.
That was the last straw for Gable. His voice grew steely and sober. "I'm gonna let you go. I'm gonna walk you out of this apartment just the way you are. You're not gonna collect any belongings or anything. You're just gonna walk out." If only he followed through. "You understand? If you try to pull anything, I'll knock you the fuck out." Gable growled. He then ordered Warina to get the fuck up while she repeatedly whimpered. "I'm so sorry." The sounds of another struggle took over the tape.
Perhaps Gable was hauling Warina up. Maybe she was trying to escape. Whatever the case, she managed to grab the metal clamp of a small telescope, likely hoping to defend herself with it. Sadly, Gable was far too powerful. As he repeatedly ordered Warina to let go, gurgling and gasping sounds can be heard. She was obviously struggling to breathe, though Gable would later deny it. It sounded like she was being choked.
Eventually, she let go, and the clamp thudded to the floor. Then, there was a click. The glass balcony door had been unlocked. Warina suddenly screeched. "No!" It was ragged, desperate, and frankly, disturbing to hear. The 26-year-old would scream that word 31 times in 46 seconds, each utterance becoming more and more animalistic as Gable dragged her closer and closer to his balcony.
Her howls were raw and wild, weighed down by genuine terror. The pitch begged Gable to stop, but he didn't. Shut your fucking mouth, he barked. Warina wouldn't. She couldn't. In between her frantic screeches, she pleaded for mercy. Just let me go home, she begged. I would, but you've been a bad girl, Gable smirked.
Warina's screams faded as the glass balcony door clicked shut. Gable locked it behind him, leaving her hammered and hysterical on a small balcony 14 stories above a solid concrete sidewalk. Why Gable didn't lock Warina out of the apartment itself, we'll never know. What we do know is that 25 seconds later, he immediately regretted it. At 2:21 AM, Warina Wright uttered her last words on this earth.
"Just let me go home," she whimpered. Just seconds later, Gable's session 24 recording captured a sudden scream escaping her lips. Her final blood curdling screech trailed off as she plummeted over 150 feet to her death. Part eight, a Tinder date on trial. After analyzing the distressing recording, investigators were forced to maul over the concept of culpability. Gable was within his rights to remove someone from his property.
but that's not what he did. Instead, he violently subdued Warina and forced her onto his balcony. She was so petrified of Gable that she felt her life was in danger, so much so that she tried to flee rather than face him again. In a daring, drunken escape attempt, Warina climbed over the railing and tried to get to the balcony below but lost her grip. So, was her death murder, manslaughter, or a genuine mistake?
Investigators decided to leave that decision up to a jury. At 10:40 AM on August 15th, one week after Warina's fatal fall, the Queensland Police Service descended upon the Tosti family home in a gated Carrara housing estate. Gable Tosti was shaken awake by police officers who promptly slapped a pair of handcuffs on his tanned, muscular wrists. They arrested him on suspicion of murder and walked him out of his parents' home while the Tosti's neighbors gawked.
The 28-year-old maintained an indifferent expression as he was ushered into a cruiser, driven out of his suburban utopia and straight to the Surfer's Paradise police station. He remained tight-lipped about the incident, as expected, and investigators eventually gave up on the interrogation altogether.
Gable Tostee was then formally charged with the murder of 26-year-old Warina Tagapuno Wright. He was put in custody at Arthur Gorey Correctional Center in Brisbane, where he would stay for the next three months. On November 19th, Gable was back in court for his bail hearing, clean-shaven and joined by his parents, Gray and Helaine,
His murder trial was only expected to commence in 14 months and the Toste's lawyer, Soraya Ryan, fought fiercely to ensure he didn't spend that time in a prison cell. Crown prosecutor Ben Power argued that Gable was a flight risk, stating that he displayed "a bizarre indifference to Warina's death" and had more than enough money to flee the country. He also had good reason, the looming threat of a mandatory 20-year prison sentence.
Ryan countered by pointing out that Gable's face was plastered across all national news outlets, making it near impossible for him to evade the authorities. The judge found this particularly persuasive, as well as the $200,000 surety the Tostes put up to sweeten the deal. It worked. Gable was released from prison on bail a few hours later. His parents drove him back to their house in Carrara, where he would remain until his trial.
Even so, the judge didn't let him off that easy. Gable's release agreement dictated that he live under strict bail conditions to prevent him from fleeing or becoming a danger to the public, particularly women. The 28 year old was ordered to adhere to a strict 6:00 PM curfew, enroll in a treatment program for alcohol abuse and abstain from drinking altogether. The judge clearly doubted Gable's ability to abide by the latter.
prompting her to throw random breathalyzer tests into the mix for good measure. Thankfully, he was expected to abstain from more than just booze. Gable was banned from Tinder and social media as a whole. After what had happened to Warina, the judge hoped to protect other unsuspecting women from his prowling hunger for drunken sex. Part 9. Hindsight is always 20-20. Of course, Gable felt he was being treated unfairly.
When his trial finally commenced in October of 2016, his stance on the matter didn't change. The 30-year-old stood before Justice John Byrne in the Brisbane Supreme Court, waived his right to testify, and pleaded not guilty. Not one ounce of remorse was shown, despite his behavior on the night Marina died. The trial only lasted six days. However, as anticipated, it was anything but straightforward.
The prosecution worked hard to prove that Gable was at least in part responsible for Warina's death, even though he was on the other side of a locked door when it happened. "The defendant caused her death as much as if he had pushed her from the balcony himself," argued Crown Prosecutor Glenn Cash. Gable was accused of terrorizing and intimidating Warina to such an extent that she felt her only option was to seek refuge in the apartment below, which inevitably led to her death.
The defense, on the other hand, sought to place the blame squarely on Warina's tiny shoulders. Barrister Saul Holt argued that Gable had used reasonable force to restrain the 26-year-old after she became increasingly erratic, something the prosecution attributed to the moonshine he had been feeding her for hours.
Holt then referenced the Session 24 recording and accused Warina of unlawful, unprovoked assault for hitting Gable and pelting him with decorative pebbles. The barrister also alleged that she had hit him over the head with the clamp of the telescope, though there was no way to prove it. He argued that forcing Warina onto the balcony was an attempt to de-escalate the situation and insisted that Gable had the right to lock the door behind him.
"She is outside, he is inside, and he has caused a locked door to be between the two of them," Olt told the court. The prosecution countered, alleging that Gabe's behavior was more forceful than it was reasonable. They played 45 seconds of the recording, which captured disturbing, rasping gasps that they alleged were consistent with the sounds of choking. The prosecution accused Gable of strangling Warina during their scuffle, which he vehemently denied.
To their dismay, the Crown's final witness agreed. Dr. Diane Little, a pathologist at the Gold Coast University Hospital, testified that there was no medical evidence of strangulation. She did concede that Warina's neck was reddened, but chalked the injuries up to the fall itself.
At that stage, there were only two points of dispute between the Crown and the defense. Dr. Little had obliterated one of them. The remaining contest was Gable's culpability, the plausibility of which was left up to a jury of six men and six women. On October 17th, they retired to deliberate. Curiously, Justice Byrne warned them not to convict Gable simply based on his behavior. Hindsight is always 20-20, he cautioned.
Four days later, the jury returned their verdict. Gable Tostee was found not guilty. He was acquitted of both murder and manslaughter, an announcement that brought Warina's family and several jurors to tears. Gable walked out of court a free man, officially absolved of any remorse or rue for the part he played in his Tinder date's horrific death. I've yet to come across a story that leaves me feeling so conflicted.
Gable Tostee was a predator who preyed on women to satiate his insecurities, something the jury was never made aware of. He intentionally got Warina wasted and became so hostile that she was more terrified of him than climbing over the balcony of an apartment 14 stories above the ground. That said, the law is the law, and in the law's eyes, Warina chose her fate.
Now, we can only hope that Gable chooses to change his.