Two generations have passed since the actress died mysteriously on a boat off the coast of Santa Catalina Island. For decades her death was ruled an accident. But in 2011, authorities reopened the case and now suggest that some pieces of the puzzle are missing. Keep reading the article below to learn more about Natalie Wood Murder.
Ship’s skipper Dennis Davern, actor Christopher Walken and Wood’s husband Robert Wagner told investigators a different story. The evidence doesn’t add up.
Wood was in a long-term relationship with Wagner, and he was devastated at her death. The two were weekending on their yacht Splendour with Christopher Walken that fateful night, and they’d gotten into a fight with each other. After the argument, he said she left the room in embarrassment and he assumed she had taken a dinghy out on the water. When she didn’t come back, he called the Harbor Patrol. The next morning, her body was found floating a mile from the yacht, with the small dinghy nearby. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department ruled her death accidental drowning. The bruises that were documented on her body also raised suspicions, but the evidence was never strong enough to hold anyone responsible for murder.
For years, Wagner resisted calls to speak publicly about the case, but in 2008 he published his memoir, Pieces of My Heart. In the book, he discusses the stormy argument he and Walken had, why he believed she left the boat to go ashore, and the moments he spent on that dark night after he realized she was missing.
The new book also reveals the fact that many of the original investigators were friends of Frank Sinatra and other Hollywood fixers, which may have skewed the case. Another red flag in the case is that it took over an hour for Wagner to call authorities when he realized his wife was missing.
Throughout the years, both Wood’s sister Lana and ship’s skipper Dennis Davern have claimed that the official story of what happened that night is wrong. In a 1992 appearance on a Geraldo Rivera special and in a 2000 Vanity Fair article, Davern said that when he questioned the police at the time of Wood’s disappearance, he was told to keep quiet because it would hurt his reputation.
Christopher Walken
In her own words, Natalie Wood was “a dutiful daughter raised to never rock the boat.” That was true throughout her life, even after she became a famous movie star. Her refusal to speak out irked those around her, from the directors who exploited her to her abusive husbands, and the studio executives who looked the other way.
For her final hours, however, she defied those societal expectations. On Thanksgiving of 1981, she was on a yacht with her two-time husband Robert Wagner and her Brainstorm costar Christopher Walken. After a night of drinking, she disappeared from the boat, and her body was found in the water the following morning. Her death was ruled an accident, and the case was closed. But investigators reopened it in 2011 after Dennis Davern told them that he heard the couple arguing the night of her disappearance.
After the case was reopened, Wagner insisted that he had nothing to do with her death. He also refused to cooperate with investigators and said that he never witnessed her fall from the yacht. But many people, including Davern, believed that she fell overboard after a night of fighting, jealousy, and drinking.
While it is unclear what happened to Wood, her sister Lana claims that her sibling was not a victim of an accident. According to Lana, Wagner treated her with outright hostility after her death and often excluded her from family gatherings. She says that her sister was a child psychologist and had an intense fear of dark water, which grew from a childhood prophecy by a Gypsy. She was also prone to mental health issues and suffered from depression, substance abuse, and suicide attempts.
Doug Bombard
In a room packed with friends and supporters Bombard looked back on a life of excitement, history and fulfillment on Catalina Island. He had worked for the island’s government and harbor patrol before he retired in 1982. Having local knowledge of the area Bombard was consulted for his help in finding Wood’s body which had been found floating in a cove known as Blue Cavern Point.
The investigation of the actress’s nighttime demise off of southern California’s Catalina Island and a yacht she shared with her husband at the time, actor Robert Wagner, and the ship’s skipper, Dennis Davern, has never produced any concrete evidence pointing to any one person as responsible for the tragedy. The initial statements made by the three men all conflicted, and fresh bruises and scrapes listed on the coroner’s report seemed to indicate that Wood had been assaulted prior to her drowning.
But no charges were ever filed. The cause of her death was officially changed from drowning to undetermined. The change came after a revised autopsy revealed that bruises on her body were not inflicted during the fall into the water but may have been sustained earlier. The new autopsy also indicated that nail clippings taken from Wood’s hand were not available for examination and didn’t prove whether the scratch marks on her dinghy were inflicted by her or not.
The new book by Finstad, which has been republished as Natalie Wood: The Complete Biography, exposes what she says were intentional efforts to suppress evidence and close the case. Her analysis of a manipulated official report, crime scene evidence including never-before-seen photographs and her careful examination of the initial statements by Wagner, Walken and Davern convincingly demonstrate that the circumstances surrounding Wood’s death were far from accidental.
Dr. Joseph Choi
Actress Natalie Wood died on Thanksgiving night in 1981, floating in the Pacific Ocean clad only in her flannel nightgown. She was drunk, arguing with her husband and co-star, Robert Wagner, on their yacht and apparently trying to hoist herself onto the dinghy when she fell overboard. Several bruises were found on her body, but the Los Angeles County coroner’s office believed they were consistent with a fall overboard and ruled her death an accident.
Over the years, various theories about what happened to Wood have been offered. For decades, accusing fingers pointed at Wagner but no evidence backed up the claims. But in 2011 the LA County Sheriff’s Department reopened the investigation and changed her cause of death from “accidental drowning” to “drowning and other undetermined factors.”
In a recent interview on the show 48 Hours, Christopher Walken broke his silence on the event and shared his theory as to what really happened to the star. He claimed that the bruises found on her body were not from a fall overboard but instead from being hit with something heavy. He also said that he heard Wood cry for help and that Wagner refused to stay with her until she was saved.
Other people have disputed Walken’s theory, including Dennis Davern, who was skipper of the Splendour at the time of Wood’s death. During an appearance on NBC’s Today show, Davern admitted that he lied when questioned by investigators and told police that he thought Wagner was responsible for the actress’s death. But both her daughter and stepdaughter, Natasha Gregson Wagner, stand by her mother’s innocence.
Marti Rulli
For decades, Natalie Wood’s mysterious death on a yacht off the coast of Southern California was chalked up to a tragic accident. But now a former sheriff’s deputy says it was much more. And that’s why he is calling for a new look at the case.
The new investigation will focus on what happened during the final four hours of Wood’s life aboard her husband Robert Wagner’s yacht, the Splendour. During that time, the dingy that she was supposed to be riding in got loose. And when she was found the next morning, it was empty on the beach. This sparked a theory that Wood, who was famously afraid of water, took the dinghy and went ashore to avoid drowning.
But according to Marti Rulli, the New Jersey freelance writer who joined forces with Davern in 2008 to write a book about the incident called Goodbye Natalie, Goodbye Splendour, that theory was just a cover for a murder. Rulli claims that Wagner, who was jealous of his wife’s relationship with Davern, wanted her dead.
On NBC’s Today show Friday, Davern agreed that he had lied to investigators after the actress died, but that he was now ready to tell the truth. He also confirmed that he had asked Los Angeles County sheriff’s homicide investigators to reopen the case.
He says he feels “vindicated” that the reopening of the case has finally happened, and that investigators have taken his accusations seriously. But he has also insisted that the dinghy could have been lost in a normal operation. And he has pointed to the fact that he and Rulli have been able to convince other witnesses to come forward with their accounts of what happened.
