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Actress Natalie Wood's Strange Death


Natalie Wood (July 20, 1938 – November 29, 1981) was an American film and television actress best known for her screen roles in Miracle on 34th Street, Splendor in the Grass, Rebel Without a Cause, and West Side Story. After first working in films as a child, Wood became a successful Hollywood star as a young adult, receiving three Academy Award nominations before she was 25 years old.

During the making of her last film Brainstorm, Wood allegedly drowned while on a weekend boat trip to Santa Catalina Island, California, with her husband Robert Wagner (picture), Brainstorm co-star Christopher Walken, and the boat's captain, Dennis Davern. 

Many facts surrounding her drowning are unknown, because no one admitted seeing how she entered the water. Wood's body was discovered by authorities at 8 a.m. on November 29, 1981, one mile away from the boat, with a small inflatable dinghy found beached nearby. 

According to Wagner, when he went to bed, Wood was not there.

The autopsy report revealed that Wood had bruises on her body and arms as well as an abrasion on her left cheek.

Later, in his book Pieces of My Heart, Wagner acknowledged that he had a fight with Wood before she disappeared. The autopsy also found that Wood's blood alcohol level was 0.14%, and there were traces of two types of medication in her bloodstream: a motion-sickness pill and a painkiller, which increase the effects of alcohol.

Following his investigation, Los Angeles County coroner Thomas Noguchi ruled her death an accident by drowning and hypothermia. According to the coroner, Wood had been drinking and may have slipped while trying to re-board the dinghy.

The case was reopened in November 2011 after the captain of the boat, Dennis Davern, publicly stated that he had lied to police during the initial investigation and that Wood and Wagner had had a fight that evening, and alleged that Wagner was responsible for her death. 

After nine months of further investigation, Los Angeles County Chief Medical Examiner, Dr.Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran, amended Wood's death certificate and changed the cause of her death from accidental drowning to "drowning and other undetermined factors."

The amended document includes a statement that the circumstances of how Wood ended up in the water are "not clearly established". The coroner's office has been instructed by detectives not to discuss or comment on the case. 

On January 14, 2013, the Los Angeles County coroner's office offered a 10-page addendum to Wood's autopsy report stating that some of the bruises on her body may have been sustained before she went into the water and drowned, but that could not be definitively determined. 
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