We know a lot about Gable Tostee, 30, from the Gold Coast. We heard a lot about him during his trial for the murder and manslaughter of Warriena Wright, 26, from New Zealand, who fell from the balcony of his 14th floor apartment in Surfer’s Paradise on August 8, 2014.
We heard him breathe a sigh of relief after he was found ‘not guilty’ on both counts yesterday in a Brisbane court. “That was hell,” he told one of his friends.
We know about the number of women he chased on Tinder. We know, through his lawyers, his account of the three hours in his apartment before Wright fell to the hard concrete below.
About Warriena, we know a lot less. She was the “Tinder date”, the “New Zealand tourist”. The girl who fell to her death. Phrases like “acting crazy” and “trying to beat him up” and “do you know how much she had to drink?” have been thrown about.
Her life has been diminished, through lawyers and media attention and harsh courtroom lighting, to a space of several hours. Three hours of a secret recording from Tostee’s phone. CCTV footage of her movements before her death. The white decoration pebbles on the floor of Tostee’s apartment. The amount of alcohol in her system. Whether or not there were choke marks on her neck.
In trying to understand what really happened in Tostee’s apartment that night, we are forgetting something extremely important.
We are forgetting that Warriena – or “Rrie” as she was known to her friends – was a real person.
A person, like you and me, who would laugh and smile and tell stories and take pictures and daydream about the future and maybe she didn’t like Mondays. Maybe she loved the smell of coffee, but hated the taste. I’m sure she and her sister had memories of cubby houses and sister arguments and borrowing-but-really-secretly-stealing each other’s clothes.
Top Comments
She may have been the most wonderful person, but the problem is that it's important to know exactly what a person's behaviour and level of drunkedness is on the night they died as evidence to determine whether it was an accident, suicide or murder. As hard as it would have been for her family to hear all this, this is why what she did that night was relevant. You also have to keep in mind if this was not entered into evidence an innocent person may have ended up going to jail.
If he is truly innocent, and the court has found him to be so, then unfortunately whilst no one wishes to denigrate the girl the conclusion is that she was responsible for her own death, whether that was due to impaired decision making due to drunkedness or a mental/personality problem I don't know, but this is why this kind of evidence is relevant.
Thank you for acknowledging her humanity. She was more than just a 'Tinder date'. I feel for all her family, especially her sister who clearly treasured her.