Israelis on Ship Killed Wife, Says Newlywed

A Santa Monica man being held for allegedly throwing his bride off a cruise ship claimed Tuesday that she was killed by Israeli agents trying to frame him because of a book he wrote exposing purported crimes committed by Israel.

Scott Roston, 36, originally told authorities that he and his wife were jogging on the deck of the cruise ship Star Dancer when a strong wind blew her overboard and he was unsuccessful in rescuing her.

Coast Guard officials said winds were calm when the woman disappeared.

The body of Karen Waltz Roston, 26, was found Saturday, 30 miles southwest of San Diego. An autopsy revealed she died of “strangulation associated with drowning, homicide,” Everett Mauger, a San Diego deputy coroner, said.

First Story Recanted

After his appearance before a U.S. magistrate in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Roston recanted his first story of his wife’s disappearance in a written statement, which he asked his court-appointed lawyer to read to reporters.

“I, Scott Roston, am being framed for the murder of my beloved wife Karen Waltz Roston by foreign agents,” lawyer Paul E. Potter read. “This brutal act was committed because I published an expose last year of the countless crimes of that (Israeli) government.”

Roston said in his statement that Israeli agents drugged him and that he had no memory of what happened that night.

The statement said Israeli agents tried in vain to kidnap him in the past and U.S. agents pursued him because he had documents showing U.S. government involvement in Israel’s “gross violation of human rights.” But Roston gave no specifics.

Asks Intercession

Roston asked through his lawyer that President Reagan intercede on his behalf and that he be allowed to attend his wife’s funeral. He also apologized to his mother-in-law for the death of his wife.

“I promised her mom I would take good care of her,” he said. “I’m sorry I failed.”

The FBI arrested Roston when the Bahamian-registered ship returned to the Port of Long Beach. He was ordered held without bail at Terminal Island federal detention center on an arrest warrant issued by the Bahamas, which intends to charge Roston with murder on the high seas, court documents said.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Spurgeon Smith said it had not yet been decided whether the Bahamas or the United States would press charges against Roston.

Potter, who said Roston “may have” received a psychiatric discharge from the Navy, had no details on the allegations in Roston’s book, “Nightmare in Israel,” published last year by Vantage Press, a vanity publishing house.

In a sworn affidavit filed in federal court Tuesday, FBI agent Lawrence Gallagher said Dr. Douglas Dixon, a San Diego deputy medical examiner, said the autopsy showed the woman drowned, and there were signs indicating she had been strangled.

Dixon said there were contusions on various parts of her body. The affidavit also said she had a “goose-egg type bump on her forehead, marks of undetermined origin on both sides of her neck” and a tiny puncture wound below her left breast.

At first, Roston told the ship’s captain, Thomas Wildung, that he grabbed his wife’s hands, but she slipped from his grasp and fell into the sea. When he told the story later to an FBI agent, he said his wife slipped out of sight before he reached her and that he never grabbed her hands, the affidavit said.

On Deck for Exercise

Roston told the FBI agent his wife wanted to exercise so they went up to the deck to “fast walk,” the document said. Roston said he stopped to rest while his wife made a few more laps around the track.

Roston said he then heard his wife scream several times, “Scott, help, Scott, help, help, help,” but was unable to reach her, according to the affidavit.

Strands of hair and an earring matching one that Karen Roston wore in a photo taken at a dinner aboard ship were found embedded in the track, near the railing, the affidavit said.

The Rostons were honeymooning after eloping to Las Vegas on Feb. 4. The two met a little more than a year ago in Florida where Karen, a masseuse, was treating Scott with physical therapy for injuries sustained in a fall.