Los Angeles: No new evidence has been found by the LA County Sheriff’s Department in the reinvestigation of actress Natalie Wood’s drowning to suggest there was any foul play in her death.
The Los Angeles Times quoted William McSweeney, the sheriff’s chief of detectives, saying that several weeks of new interviews and other investigative work have uncovered no evidence to suggest that Wood’s death was a homicide.
“At this point, it is an accidental death. Nothing has been discovered to suggest changing that at this time,” he said. The investigation into the 30-year-old incident was reopened in November last year after several sources came up with new information.
McSweeney said they were still looking at some aspects of the case, making sure smaller questions not answered in the original investigation are addressed. He also said that in such cold cases files are never really closed and they can be opened anytime new information comes in. He said he’s doubtful that the new investigation will change the overall conclusion about Wood’s death. Wood, who starred opposite James Dean in the ‘Rebel Without Cause’, died on Thanksgiving weekend in 1981.
The 43-year-old star was off Catalina Island on the yacht she owned with husband Robert Wagner when she drowned on November 29. Authorities discovered Wood’s body in the morning next day, about a mile away from the yacht.
The dinghy was found beached nearby. The death was ruled an accident at that time but speculation related to her drowning never ended. Actor Christopher Walken, then her costar in the film Brainstorm was also with the couple. (PTI)