Natalie Wood death probe to be reopened

Getty Images file

By msnbc.com news services

Updated at 9:14 p.m. PT

Homicide investigators are reopening an investigation into the death of actress Natalie Wood, who drowned in 1981 while boating off the California coast, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said on Thursday.

"Recently sheriff's homicide investigators were contacted by persons who stated they had additional information about the Natalie Wood Wagner drowning," the sheriff's department said in a written statement.

"Due to the additional information, Sheriff's Homicide Bureau has decided to take another look at the case," the statement said.

Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore declined to release details about what information investigators received.

A news conference has been scheduled for 11 a.m. PT Friday with the detective leading the investigation.

The actress drowned after a night of partying with husband Robert Wagner and "Brainstorm" co-star Christopher Walken on the couple's yacht anchored off Santa Catalina Island. Her death at age 43?was ruled an accident and it was determined that she had been drinking before her death.

The sheriff's office wrote that Wood was "possibly attempting to board the dinghy and had fallen into the water, striking her face."

A dinghy that had been attached to the couple's yacht, "Splendor," was found in a Catalina cove.

The case has become one of Hollywood's most alluring mysteries. Wood's drowning sparked tabloid speculation that foul play was involved, but Wagner and Wood's sister have dismissed any suggestion there was foul play.

Lana Wood wrote in a biography on her sister, "What happened is that Natalie drank too much that night."

The Los Angeles Times reported that detectives were prompted to look at the case again after comments by the ship's captain, Dennis Davern. He was recently interviewed for a collaboration between the magazine Vanity Fair and the television series "48 Hours Mystery" that focuses on Wood's death.

The Times, citing anonymous sources, reported that the sheriff's department had also received an anonymous letter saying that the captain had new recollections about the case.

"Although no one in the Wagner family has heard from the LA County Sheriff's department about this matter, they fully support the efforts of the LA County Sheriff's Dept. and trust they will evaluate whether any new information relating to the death of Natalie Wood Wagner is valid, and that it comes from a credible source or sources other than those simply trying to profit from the 30 year anniversary of her tragic death," Wagner spokesman Alan Nierob wrote in a statement.

Wagner wrote in a 2009 autobiography that he blamed himself for his wife's death.

He recounted the night of Wood's disappearance, during which the couple and Walken drank at a restaurant and on the boat. Wood went to the master cabin during an argument between her husband and Walken. The last time Wagner saw his wife, she was fixing her hair at a bathroom vanity and she shut the door.

Wagner wrote that despite various theories about what led Wood to the water, which she feared, it was impossible to know what exactly happened.

"Nobody knows," he wrote. "There are only two possibilities; either she was trying to get away from the argument, or she was trying to tie the dinghy. But the bottom line is that nobody knows exactly what happened."

Later in the book, Wagner wrote, "Did I blame myself? If I had been there, I could have done something. But I wasn't there. I didn't see her."

He wrote that he has never returned to Catalina Island. The couple first married in 1957, and divorced six years later. They remarried in 1972.

Phone and email messages to Walken's publicist were not immediately returned. Attempts to contact Davern were unsuccessful.

Wood, who was nominated for three Oscars,?starred in numerous movies, including "West Side Story" and "Rebel Without a Cause."?

Reuters and The Associated Press?contributed to this report.

Source: http://entertainment.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/17/8866043-natalie-wood-death-probe-to-be-reopened

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