Los Angeles: The US police has said that they have “credible information” to reopen the investigation into the 1981 drowning of Hollwood icon Natalie Wood, whose death was deemed “accidental” at that time.
Wood drowned after spending several hours drinking on Catalina Island in a yacht with husband Robert Wagner and co-star Christopher Walken. Wood left for her room after some time but Wagner said in his 2008 autobiography that when he returned to their room she was gone. Her body was discovered the next morning.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s office said that it was probing new leads in the case, which was ruled accidental back then by their own investigators as well as the Los Angeles County Cororner at the time, Thomas Noguchi, the Variety reported.
“We have several sources that have come forward with additional sources of information. We found it credible enough to take another look at the case,” Lt John Corina, a Sheriff’s detective said in a press conference yesterday.
Corina said that they are in the early stages of the investigation and Wagner is not a suspect in the case. He added that while investigators have not talked to the Wagner family, they will contact them “sooner or later.”
“Right now her death is an accidental drowning. Until we find something that says it isn’t, it is still an accidental drowning.”
Meanwhile, Dennis Davern, who captained Wood and husband Robert Wagner’s yacht, the Splendour, on the night she disappeared, has blamed Wagner for Wood’s death. Davern has claimed that he did “lie on a report several years ago.”
Davern, who co-authored a 2009 book ‘Goodbye Natalie, Goodbye Splendour’, has blamed Wagner for dissuading him from searching for her in the water. Davern feels that the delay in calling coastguard prevented Wood’s rescue. (PTI)