Two months ago, authorities in Los Angeles County decided to start another investigation regarding the death of actress Natalie Wood in 1981. According to recent statements, detectives didn’t find new probe in the Natalie Wood case that would point to foul play. However, the case is still not closed.
Natalie Wood’s death occurred sometime in the evening of November 28th, 1981 while the actress, her husband Robert Wagner and actor Cristopher Walken were boating off the Catalina Island. Seemingly Natalie decided to go for a swim and somehow died.
But, a more in-depth investigation in what happened that night shows that Wagner and Walken got into an argument after having dinner at a restaurant on Catalina Island. Walken went to bed, while Natalie’s husband stayed up talking with boat captain Dennis Davern. Then he went looking for his wife, but apparently she couldn’t be found on board.
Wagner figured out his wife wasn’t on board after noticing that a small inflatable boat was also missing. He waited a few minutes for her return and then went looking for her aboard a small cruiser. After failing to find his wife, Wagner alerted the Harbor Patrol and its agents discovered Natalie’s body a mile away from the yacht at 8 a.m. on Sunday.
The authorities reopened the case after in November 2011 they were contacted by persons who claimed to have “additional information” about Natalie’s death. At that time, Lt. John Corina with the sheriff’s department in Los Angeles County said: “This new information is substantial enough to make us want to take a new look at the case”.
However, since November, the police has conducted a lot of interviews and reviewed the whole original case file, but with no success in finding new probes. William McSweeney, the sheriff’s chief of detectives, said:”At this point, it is an accidental death. Nothing has been discovered to suggest changing that at this time”.
Despite authorities’ new ruling, there are still two things that don’t fit. First of all, it’s the yacht’s captain Dennis Davern statements, who believed that Wood might have been subjected to foul play. Secondly, there’s a statement from lifeguard captain Roger Smith, who believes that the actress could have been saved if Wagner would have called the authorities earlier.
