The victims of the OceanGate Titan submarine tragedy have had their remains returned to their grieving families as "slush" in "shoeboxes".
Christine Dawood's husband Shahzada and 19-year-old son Suleman were killed alongside three other men in the Titan submersible as they attempted to view the wreckage of the Titanic in 2023.
Mrs Dawood has now revealed it took nine months after it was confirmed the submersible had catastrophically imploded for her loved ones' bodies to be returned.
She told The Guardian: "We didn’t get the bodies for nine months.
"Well, when I say bodies, I mean the slush that was left. They came in two small boxes, like shoeboxes."
The remains, recovered from the seabed, were meticulously separated and DNA tested by the US Coast Guard in order to confirm their identities.
She added: "There wasn’t much they could find. They have a big pile they can’t separate, all mixed DNA, and they asked if I wanted some of that, too.
"But I said no, just what you know is Suleman and Shahzada."
The Titan submersible suffered a 'catastrophic implosion' which took the lives of five people, including Christine Dawood's husband
|OCEANGATE
Mrs Dawood, who was originally supposed to be on the submersible before giving up her place to her son, has now written a book detailing her experience and grief, three years after the tragedy.
Stockton Rush, the pilot of the Titan submarine, founded OceanGate in 2009 with a mission to "democratise" the deep.
In 2025, a US Coast Guard found that Mr Rush "exhibited negligence" which resulted in the deaths of the four other men, and may have been held criminally liable.
Speaking to GB News days after contact with the Titan submarine was lost, OceanGate co-founder Guillermo Sohnlein claimed Mr Rush was "one of the most intelligent people" and "very risk averse".
TITAN SUBMERSIBLE DISASTER - READ MORE:
Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman had their bodies returned to Christine as 'slush' in a 'shoebox'
| REUTERSMr Sohnlein, who left the company he co-founded in 2013, gave evidence at a US Coast Guard hearing on 23 September 2024, admitted he had never been on an OceanGate dive and had "no intention of creating our own subs" when the company was founded.
Mrs Dawood, whose husband comes from one of the wealthiest families in Pakistan, said tickets for the trip cost $500,000, or the "money I'd expect a house for".
Mr Rush and his wife, Wendy, met with Mrs Dawood and her husband in February 2023 in London to reassure the trip would be worth "every cent".
The OceanGate chief executive spoke of the innovative nature of the carbon fibre-hulled and cyndrically-shaped submarine - design decisions which went against the conventional high-strength steel sphere of most submarines - and the strange ocean creatures they would see, Mrs Dawood said.
OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush and his wife Wendy met with Christine and reassured them the trip would be worth 'every cent'
| REUTERSShe said Mr Rush's wife, Wendy, was "very quiet", adding that when the conversation turned to the subject of communication between the submarine and the ship, Mr Rush would admit: "Yeah, sometimes we lose contact".
Mrs Dawood added: "I think she saw the risks; she saw the potential that there was something not quite right. He just ignored her."
Billionaire Briton Hamish Harding and 77-year-old French explorer and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet also tragically died on the submarine.
The family of Mr Nargeolet are currently suing OceanGate, who suspended operations in 2023, and the estate of Mr Rush, for over $50million in the state of Washington for gross negligence and wrongful death.