It’s been more than four decades since actress Natalie Wood drowned in the Pacific Ocean near Catalina Island, California, under mysterious circumstances.
Now, new eyewitness accounts have surfaced and they are shining a light on how the 43-year-old Rebel Without A Cause star ended up in the ocean on November 29, 1981.
PUSHED OVERBOARD
In her book Natalie Wood And The Devil She Knew, author Marti Rulli says new witnesses approached her after the case into Natalie’s death was reopened in 2011.
One witness, a then-17-year-old worker on a nearby fishing boat, claimed he heard an argument aboard her actor husband Robert Wagner’s yacht Splendour that night.
“He heard an argument, and he told me he heard Natalie’s screams that made him feel uncomfortable,” Marti told RadarOnline.
“He didn’t report it to police because he thought it was an open-and-shut drowning case.” Marti, who previously co-wrote a book about Natalie’s death with Splendour’s captain, Dennis Davern, 76, alleges Natalie was physically abused by Robert, now 94, the night she disappeared.
The case was reopened in 2011 after Dennis revealed he had lied to police during the investigation, and accused Robert of being responsible for her death.
He claims Robert became enraged after finding Natalie flirting with her Brainstorm co-star Christopher Walken, 81, who was also on the Splendour that night.
He says Robert smashed a bottle of wine and began fighting with Natalie, telling her to “Get off my f**king boat!” before pushing the actress overboard, and instructing Dennis not to search for her.
A year later, the LA County Coroner changed Natalie’s cause of death to “drowning and other undetermined factors” while Robert was named as a person of interest in 2018.
Robert has always denied the claims, and was officially cleared of any involvement in 2022, maintaining that Natalie took off in a dinghy and never returned.
NEW TESTIMONY
As Natalie was one of the biggest stars of the ’50s and ’60s, with films such as Miracle On 34th Street, West Side Story and Splendour In The Grass, Marti hopes the case will be re-examined by a grand jury investigation.
If approved by the LA District Attorney, charges could be laid if there’s enough evidence Natalie was killed.
“I still hold hope the Los Angeles DA will see fit to let the strong previous evidence, and the new evidence I have gathered, bring justice for Natalie’s murder,” Marti says of the baffling case.
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