More incriminating testimony has come to light after Robert Wagner was identified as a person of interest in his wife Natalie Wood’s 1981 drowning death.
Wood drowned after falling from a yacht in Catalina in November 1981. She was accompanied by her then-husband Wagner and actor Christopher Walken on the night of her drowning; yacht Captain Dennis Davern was also on the vessel when she fell into the water. Her body was found the next day, and her death was ruled an accidental drowning.
But in a preview clip released last week for a 48 Hours segment about her death, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Lieutenant John Corina said that Wagner had become a person of interest in her death.
“I think it’s suspicious enough to make us think that something happened,” Corina said in the interview, adding that he believes Wagner knows more about Natalie’s death than he has let on.
The 48 Hours documentary aired this weekend, revealing two new, unidentified, witnesses who corroborate captain Dennis Davern’s longstanding claim that Wagner and Wood were fighting the night she fell overboard from the yacht, Splendour. Additional witnesses reportedly saw Wagner and Wood fighting the night before Wood drowned.
Davern said on 48 Hours that Wager did not demonstrate much urgency when he first realized Natalie — along with the yacht’s dinghy — was missing from the Splendour around midnight, first searching the boat and then surmising that she had gone ashore. Davern said he suggested that he turn on the boat’s searchlights to look for Natalie in the water, but Wagner refused. Instead the two men drank whiskey for about an hour instead of alerting authorities.
“Before you know it, we’re oblivious,” Davern said. “And, it’s time. We have to call somebody. She’s gone.”
Davern said that at that time, Wagner called acquaintances to look for Natalie on the shore, and only after Davern pressured him further did he call the Coast Guard.
Natalie’s body was found the next morning in the water, dead of drowning.
At 11 a.m. PT on Monday, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau will hold a press conference to discuss the latest developments in the Natalie Wood investigation.
Featured Image: Actor Robert Wagner and former wife Natalie Wood, on board the Queen Elizabeth II in April 1972, after a hectic storm at sea, where they announced that they would remarry. (AP Photo/Steve Wood)
