What happened to Natalie Wood?
That is the question the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office hopes to answer regarding the Nov. 29, 1981, death of the adored movie star, it was announced late Thursday.
Saying they had new information about Wood’s death, sheriff’s officials have decided to reopen the investigation, according to Deputy Benjamin Grubb.
Wood, a child actress (1947′s Miracle on 34th Street) who went on to A-list status after 1955′s Rebel Without a Cause, 1961′s West Side Story and 1963′s Love With the Proper Stranger, was 43 when she mysteriously drowned while boating off Southern California’s Catalina Island.
When found, Wood’s body was floating about a mile away from the yacht carrying her husband, Robert Wagner, and actor Christopher Walken, Wood’s costar in the movie Brainstorm, which she was shooting at the time. The autopsy called the death an accident, though the tragedy has long been shrouded in gossip and speculation.
A spokesman for Wagner, 81, commenting on news that the case is being reopened, said in a statement, “Although no one in the Wagner family has heard from the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department about this matter, they fully support the efforts of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department and trust they will evaluate whether any new information relating to the death of Natalie Wood Wagner is valid, and that it comes from a credible source or sources other than those simply trying to profit from the 30-year anniversary of her tragic death.”
The Los Angeles Times reports that homicide detectives wish to speak to Dennis Davern, the captain of the yacht, which was named Splendour (Wood starred in 1961′s Splendor in the Grass), after comments he made recounting Wood’s death on its 30th anniversary.
Without elaborating, Sheriff Lee Baca told the newspaper that what Davern said was “worthy of exploring.” Davern co-authored a book published last year, Goodbye Natalie, Goodbye Splendour, and said there were arguments aboard the yacht the night of the drowning.
“I just want the truth to come out, the real story,” Natalie’s younger sister, Lana Wood, told CNN last year. “My sister was not a swimmer and did not know how to swim, and she would never go to another boat or to shore dressed in a nightgown and socks.”
A news conference on the matter has been scheduled by the Sheriff’s Department for Friday at 11 a.m. West Coast time.
� Reporting by HOWARD BREUER
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