A widow under a Titan remembers her husband, the son’s remains are returned in small caskets

Christine Dawood, a widow who lost her husband and son in the Titan Submersible disaster three years ago, said she remembers finding their remains nine months after the explosion in two small boxes – “like shoe boxes.”

“It’s been nine months since we found the bodies,” Dawood told the Guardian in a story published on Saturday. “Well, when I say corpses, I mean the trash that was left. They came in two small boxes like shoe boxes.”

He added that “There is not much they can find” of Shahzada Dawood, 48, and their son, Suleman, 19, from London, after the arrest.

“They have a huge pile they can separate, all mixed DNA, and they asked if I wanted some of that. But I said no, it’s just something you know Suleman and Shahzada.”

Shahzada and Suleman were killed along with OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, businessman Hamish Harding and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, when underground water exploded as it descended towards the Titanic wreck in the North Atlantic Ocean on June 18, 2023.

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Dawood told the Guardian that he remembers the last time he saw his husband and son that morning entering the underwater waters while he was battling seasickness on the ship that took them out and took them to their disembarkation.

“Suleman had his own Rubik’s Cube, because he was planning to get the record to solve it very deeply,” he recalled. “And we were giggling, after all, Shahzada is crazy and when she goes down the stairs, she would giggle a little. I swung. That was it. They got into the boat and took off at high speed. It went very fast, we fell.”

A few hours later in the ship’s dining room, Dawood heard someone say: “They’ve lost contact.”

When they saw that he had heard, the person added: “‘Don’t worry, it’s not unusual.’ At that time, what should I do? I felt trapped in that ship and I had no choice but to trust what they were telling me.”

He said he tried to suppress his anxiety, telling himself that they were “stuck” underwater.

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An OceanGate-branded ferry docks at a dock near the company’s headquarters at the Port of Everett complex in Everett, Wash., June 22, 2023. (Matt Mills McKnight/Reuters)

“But I was worried. Suleman isn’t … well, both of my men, they’re not very good at being in the dark, and I knew it was going to be a very different darkness down there. Nothing. You can’t really see anything,” he said.

He said everyone on board was in total denial.

“The workers were [acting] as if nothing is happening,” he said, adding that the workers suggested that it would take time for the workers to be found unharmed.

“It occurred to me that OceanGate had ulterior motives in terms of what they told us,” he added. “They were just trying to avoid the truth. But I would quickly collapse without hope.”

As they waited, he said the team organized jamming sessions and movies to pass the time.

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Former OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush stands next to the Titan submersible. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

“In the end, I think they wanted to distract people, keep everyone busy,” he said. “They wanted everyone to watch, not feed anything to the press. But the fun times? Am I really going to sit there and sing Kumbaya? I tried to offer the movie, but when I got there it felt like a betrayal. Watching ‘Wayne’s Land’ while they were locked in the dark didn’t sit well with me.”

After extensive research, remains of underwater objects were found at the bottom of the sea.

The US Coast Guard called it a “major disaster.”

“My first thought was, thank God,” Dawood said. “When they said it was a disaster, I knew that Shahzada and Suleman didn’t know anything about it. One moment they were there and the next they were gone. Knowing that they didn’t suffer was very important. They left, but the way they left makes it easier.”

Knowing that they had left, Dawood said that he had to deal with the working details.

“What would I do with their things?” he said. “Their bags? Shahzada’s clothes and his belongings were in my house, so I packed his bags. But I didn’t pack Suleman’s. I couldn’t. Someone else did that.”

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Commander First Coast Guard District in Boston, Rear Adm. John Mauger, speaks during a news conference about debris found on the ocean floor that shows a catastrophic loss of pressure in an underwater space lost near the wreck of the Titanic, June 22, 2023. (Fatih Aktas/Anadolu Agency)

Last year, the Coast Guard released a report, calling the arrest an “avoidable tragedy,” blaming OceanGate’s culture of evasive control and “recklessness” in security.

“From the beginning, I had many reasons to hate Stockton, but does that really help me?” Dawood said. “He died with them. When I’m angry with him, I give him power, and I refuse to do that. I’m sure people will say I’m crazy, but if I start analyzing every single thing, where does that lead me? So, I choose my own … not happiness but … I choose me, every day. If I’m not like that, I wouldn’t be here, I’ll definitely kill myself.”

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He added that he is trying to “pay attention” to his grief.

“So I go into Suleman’s room. Sometimes I find the cat lying on the pillow and I sit on the bed and let the sadness come,” he admitted. “And after a while I can’t get rid of the grief until the next time it becomes too much. I worked a lot on my grief for Suleman, but now I’m starting to grieve for my husband. They are always together in public, but they are two different relationships. Two very different pains.”