My name is Detective Samara Melish. I'm with the Orange County Sheriff's Office.
Today's date is February 26, 2010,
and the time is 09:51 hours.
I am speaking on the phone with Jessica Wilder
in reference to Case Number 10-16715,
an incident that occurred at Seaworld on February 24th, 2010.
Jessica, for the recorder, can you just say and spell your first and last name.
My name is Jessica Wilder. J-E-S-S-I-C-A.
Wilder. W-I-L-D-E-R.
And Jessica, you had told me yesterday, when I talked to you on the phone, that you
had participated as a guest at the Dine With Shamu show.
Yep, that's correct. The 12:30 show on February 24th,
and I have our confirmation number still for our reservation if you'd like it.
Nope, that's OK. As far as the show itself,
can you kind of tell me what happened during the show?
I have attended two previous shows, Dine With Shamu, so I have a reference
for what I've observed before. I'm also a licensed veterinary technician
and hold a degree in psychology and have worked in zoos, and was a zoology major as well.
So, from witnessing this Dine With Shamu experience there was nothing observable out of the ordinary
during the dining experience.
The dining experience was wonderful. Everything went just as it always had, and
there was nothing out of the ordinary that I observed.
What happened at the end of the show?
At the end of the show, they thanked us for participating, wished us all well, and
made it clear that it was time to start exiting the dining area.
A few families, my own included, you know, we sat behind to try to snap a few more pictures
and at that time I observed a male trainer who was standing back, by the main platform in front of the screen
and a female trainer who was down. She was actually interacting with the whale still,
She was using fish to reward him and also doing the trainer hug, the pat, throwing him fish, you know asking him to do things.
I also observed her laying on that platform. She was laying right down
and he was coming up. She was hugging him.
So we watched that for a bit, and then,
my daughter said she was bored, and
we decided to head down to the underwater viewing area.
I wanted to continue to watch the interaction from down below.
So, we then left, and we went down around, and I was standing,
if you look at the viewing area, there are three different pains of glass.
I was on the one furthest to the right.
I could clearly see the whale in the water
coming up to her to receive his treats, and whatnot.
I was just enjoying watching him come for a reward and then take a loop, that sort of thing.
At that point, there was only one other family next to me
at this time, and I believe that we were able to see at that angle.
But depending on where you were at the glass, you had a different perspective.
I don't know what the people in the middle as far as left panel saw because I was on the furthest right.
I made a comment to one of the young children next to me
about "Oh, isn't this fun?" And the
mom said, "Oh, look, the trainer got in the water with him."
And I immediately looked up because I know that's not part of the Dining With Shamu experience, and
she was in the water. I knew it was a trainer because she had a black and white uniform on.
I did see blonde hair.
So, I assumed it was a female. I assumed it was the woman who'd been up there.
I also want to make it clear that I don't know the whale's name that was with the dining Shamu encounter,
but they did tell us it was the largest male at the park.
Alright, and that they did not switch whales out in that period of time,
so I believe it was the male that we observed during Dine With Shamu.
So, at this point, I see the woman in the water and she is spread eagle,
not in the typical trainer fashion when they jump in and they're in a tuck.
She was scrambling to get out. I saw her kicking, and I saw her reaching
to try to get out. And it seemed like a split second later,
the whale was approaching her because when I saw her enter the water, when I saw her in the water,
the whale was nowhere near her.
My first observation was of her just in the water.
And I turned to the woman next to me, and said,
'This is not part of the show. Get the kids out of here.'
And people didn't know what was going on. There was no alarm bell sounded.
There was nothing. The attendant there did nothing.
And here comes the whale. And at first it looked like he was going to go underneath her and give her a foot lift.
You know, like you see them do during the believe show?
And then, he lifted his snout up and impacted her squarely in the chest.
And she went, I mean you can't go flying through the water, but it was substantial.
He probably...whatever. She went soaring in the water.
She was still in the water. Then, the whale left her and went to do another loop.
She was still alive at that time because I saw her attempt to ball herself up.
People were not screaming. There was no pandemonium. I don't think people knew what was going on.
The Seaworld attendant had not yet said anything, and I was getting concerned because I knew
that the whale was about to...he was gonna kill her.
So, I turned to the mother next to me again, and I said, 'Get your kids out of here.'
I turned around to make sure my daughter wasn't at another window.
And I looked back because my daughter had gone up with my partner because she was bored, thank god.
The whale came around again, and he opened his mouth. He was headed square for her waist.
And at that point, I grabbed the kid next to me and spun her around
and grabbed the mother and said, 'Get them out of here.'
And we started to walk up. And I could see...at that point, I just saw the woman's leg.
I did not see blood in the water, and then,
as we were halfway up the man at the window started saying, 'Ok, now everybody clear out. Clear out.'
And we were at the top when the alarm bell sounded.
So, based on the viewing tank setup, I don't know how many families actually saw what I saw.
As far as I could tell, because I moved to that far right window so I could observe him being fed
and observe that platform (I was interested in it) because I could not see that from the middle or the far left.
So, I don't know how many people actually witnessed the actual attack,
but I know that I did. And the family next to me, whether they know what they saw or not, they did.
And it was a husband and a wife and two small girls.
They had been at the Dining With Shamu show as well.
Then, the bells were ringing. And we were walking up briskly,
and you could kind of see through the gate, and I was just
... you could see the trainers at that point mobilizing, with the nets.
And you know, a crowd formed, and the bells are going off.
And at that point, I was pretty well stunned. I was naus...I was very upset.
People were just talking, you know. They didn't know what was going on
and then, all the sudden, the Seaworld staff came and they start ushering people away
without any explanation. We just took our daughter out of the area because we didn't want her around the Maylay.
And as we were walking away we heard, on the radio,
a man in Seaworld attire in front of us
said on the radio, 'She's non-responsive to CPR.'
And at that point, we took our daughter to go see the Manatees quickly
to kind of normalize everything. And then we left the park.
Alright, so did you...when you were there, during the show itself,
did you notice anything out of the ordinary? Since you've seen the show multiple times,
there's nothing that looked different to you from any other show?
Absolutely not. And that's why, one of the reasons why, I called you
because I hear what people are saying. And this did not happen during the Believe Show.
This did not happen in the main tank.
I'm 100% certain of that. This was the whale that was used for the Dine With Shamu at the 12:30 show.
It was not in the stadium. Sixty thousand people did not witness this.
The only people who could have possibly witnessed this were the trainers on deck,
anyone lagging behind from the 12:30 Dine With Shamu show would have seen it from topside,
if they had stayed behind, and the people at the viewing tank down below.
Those are the only people who could have possibly witnessed it
because those gates are closed. You couldn't have gone back into the stadium.
And what happens is, with Dine With Shamu, there's a 12:00 Believe Show that day
So, that was going on before Dine With Shamu began.
That had cleared out while Dine With Shamu was still going on.
So these reports that whales were behaving oddly during the show, that's not even relevant.
They were completely different whales.
The whale from Dining With Shamu. I have pictures from before. Like I said, I've seen that show twice before.
I have extensive wildlife biology background, and
there was nothing out of the ordinary.
And the trainer, after the dinner experience, was laying down on that ledge, petting
him, giving him reward. I can't believe she would have done that
if she felt something were amiss.
So, this is just completely random.
Alright, is there anything else that you can think of that you noticed?
I mean other than what you saw when you were down by the tank.
No. Nothing was out of the ordinary, absolutely nothing. Everything went just as it had always gone.
Ok. Do you swear everything you're saying to me is true?
Yes, I do.
The time is 10:02, and I'm going to stop the recording at this point.