On November 29, 1981, at about 7:30 am, Natalie Woods’ body was found floating face down in the Pacific Ocean around 200 yards off Catalina’s Islands Blue Cavern Point. She was wearing on a flannel night gown, blue wool socks, and a red down jacket. Natalie Wood was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood up until her untimely death. With roles that include the classic Christmas film, Miracle on 34th Street, which she starred in only at age 11, Rebel Without a Cause in her teenage years, West Side Story, and Gypsy.

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Natalie Wood always had a fear of the water

Eerily, from her early childhood, Woods’ mother was said to have filled her with a fear of dark water, as a fortune teller had once prophesized that she would die of drowning. In a chilling incident from when Wood was 10 years old and filming The Green Promise, a bridge rigged to collapse threw her into the water, despite her mother assuring her it would be safe. Wood broke her wrist, and left the incident even more terrified of the water than when she began. As a child she had such a phobia of water, it is said she was afraid to wash her hair, and had recurring nightmares about drowning.

On Woods’ 18th birthday, she went on a date with actor Robert Wagner, later star of television series, Hart to Hart, who was 26 at the time. They married in 1957, but divorced just a few years after. Wood married and divorced another man later in her life, only to marry Robert Wagner once again in 1972. Wood herself had said that she believed her feelings of torment were rooted in a feeling that she did not truly know herself, as people had told her what to do her whole life. Including her mother.

Pushing forward to more recent history of the incident, it was the weekend just after Thanksgiving of 1981. Wood had been working on the science fiction film, Brainstorm, with Christopher Walken at the time, and he was invited to join her and Wagner on their yacht named The Splendour that weekend. According to the captain of the boat, Dennis Davern, who had worked with the couple for years and considered himself a family friend, Natalie Wood had become infatuated with Walken during filming and Wagner has even flown out to where they were filming to make sure he wasn’t going to “make a fool of himself over this”. Though Wagner was not the only one with a jealous streak, as around the same time, reports say Natalie Wood was suffering from jealousy over Wagner’s on-screen romance with his Hart to Hart co-star, Stephanie Powers.

Walken and Wagner were the last to see Natalie Wood alive

The group left on the yacht around noon on Friday November 27, about two days before Wood would be found dead. Everyone on the boat, including the ship’s Captain Davern, had been drinking for much of the weekend. On that Friday night, Wagner and Wood argued, to the point that Davern was concerned and asked Walken to get involved. Walken is known to have refused to intervene saying “never get involved in an argument “between a man and a wife”. Davern ended up taking Wood ashore that night in the yacht’s 13 foot inflatable dinghy named the Prince Valiant, and they slept at the Pavilion Lodge Hotel in Avalon.

The first time Davern was questioned about this night, he lied, saying that all four of them had stayed on the yacht. The police, however, already had evidence that they had not been on the boat the first night, so Davern was prompted to tell the truth. He went on to say that he and Wood spent the night in the same room, but they just drank wine and went to sleep. Davern also claims that in their relationship, he felt very protective of her, and she was very comfortable with him.

The next morning on Saturday, November 28, they returned to The Splendour, where Wood apparently decided to stay for the reminder of the weekend based upon Walken’s expressed desire to stay. Walken and Wood went ashore that afternoon to begin drinking at Doug’s Harbor Reef where they were later joined by Wagner and Davern. The party’s waitress recalls that at dinner, the consumed two bottles of wine, two bottles of champagne, and one of the men was also drinking daiquiris.

Wood returned to the ship appeared drunk

She also recalls that Wood did not eat much of her dinner and that she did not seem to be in a good mood. And when she left restaurant, appeared to be stumbling. In one moment, Wood was said to have thrown a glass down onto the floor, though Walken later explained the incident saying that it was his fault because he threw his glass on the floor after making a toast and Wood had just followed suit.

Davern has said Walken and Wood seemed very flirty throughout the dinner. They boarded the dinghy, the Valiant to return to their yacht for the night at about 10 pm. As they were boarding, a witness from the Harbor Patrol Office said they hear Wood scream about something, which he assumed was just because she was drunk. Witnesses sleeping aboard on a nearby boat, John Payne, and his girlfriend, Marilyn Wayne, reported hearing shouts at around midnight.

However, there was a party going on somewhere nearby, so he figured it was from that and did not respond. Payne claimed to hear a woman yelling “help me! Someone please help me!” coming from the near stern of the The Splendour and potentially from someone in a dinghy. He also believed to hear a man who sounded very drunk respond “okay honey, we’ll get you,” but his tone was so mocking, he claims this is why he believed the cries were associated with the party.

An alleged nonviolent argument took place before Wood disappeared

Reports say there was a nonviolent argument aboard the yacht soon before Wood disappeared. Wagner has said that he and Walken did have a political debate that he began at dinner, that they continued while aboard the yacht. He describes the event saying “there was no fight, no anger. Just a lot of words thrown around like you hear in most political discussions. Natalie sat there not saying much of anything and looking bored. She left us after about a half hour, and we sat there talking for almost another hour. Then I went to kiss her good night, and found her missing”.

At 1:30 am that night, Wagner and sea Captain Davern made a distress call to the coast guard saying that Natalie Wood had disappeared from the couple’s yacht, The Splendour, and about six hours later, taking us back to the start, the body of Wood was found floating about a mile away from the yacht. The Prince Valiant, the inflatable dinghy, which she has presumably left the boat on, was found washed up on the rocks, just a little further south. The ignition was off, the gear shift was set to neutral, and the oars were locked, which implies she may have never started the vessel.

The coroner reported that she had drunk seven or eight glasses of wine before the incident. Her blood alcohol level was at least .14 and the police ultimately ruled her death as accidental. She also has superficial bruises on her arms and lower legs as well as a cut on her cheek. Though at the time, these were all attributed to what have might have naturally occurred as she fell on the water.

Natalie Wood Death Theories

She accidentally fell into the water and drowned.

The conclusion drawn by the chief medical examiner in the LA County Coroner’s Office, Thomas Noguchi, was that Natalie Wood had fallen into the water while trying to board The Valiant.

Noguchi hypothesized that her down jacket had likely become heavy and soaked, but she never thought to remove it due to her inebriated state. Fingernail scratches found on the side of the Valiant show she tried to climb back aboard the dinghy. Eventually, she likely finally drowned due to hypothermia and exhaustion. Ultimately, it’s likely she clung to its side as it drifted away from The Splendour. However, Wood’s sister, Lana Wood, had this to say on the notion: “My sister was not a swimmer and did not know how to swim, and she would never go to another boat or to shore dressed in a nightgown and socks.”

Speaking of the nightgown and socks, Robert Wagner also said in a 1986 biography, “It was only after I was told that she was dressed “in a sleeping gown, heavy socks, and a parka that it dawned on me what had really occurred. Natalie obviously had trouble with that dinghy slamming up against the boat. It happened many, many times before, and I had always gone out and pulled the ropes tighter to keep the dinghy flush against the yacht. She probably skidded on one of the steps after untying the ropes. The steps are slick as ice because of the algae and seaweed that’s always clinging to them. After slipping on the steps, she hit her head against the boat. I only hope she was unconscious when she hit the water.”

However, some have criticized this theory as the Valiant was a rubber dinghy which, according to Noguchi, would make very little noise when they bump a yacht. Additionally, Noguchi reported forensic evidence, including the untouched algae on the swim step. It appeared that Wood may have been attempting to board the dingy rather than adjust the rope. Police investigators also found broken glass in The Splendour’s main salon, which Wagner attributed to the rough seas, a possible factor in why Wood may have fallen into the water. However, it’s here that the testimony of Captain Davern differs. He claimed that Wagner grabbed and smashed a wine bottle after going into a jealous rage over Wood and Walken’s interactions. He claims Wagner exclaimed, “Jesus Christ, what are you trying to do, fuck my wife?”

There was foul play involving Robert Wagner

Before we move forward, it’s worth noting that Davern is an unreliable witness for a variety of factors, including that it took years for him to come forward with what he says is the truth. Additionally, he seemed to release bits of information to the tabloids in the years following the incident in a relatively unsavory way. That being said, on the whole, many factors of his story ring more consistent with testimony of other witnesses and other evidence. In fact, Walken’s description of what happened when they returned to the boat is also closer to Davern’s than Wagner’s.
Walken claims an argument broke out between Wood and Wagner over Wood’s time spent away from family, to which Walken defended Wood at first, but then stepped outside rather than get further involved. When he returned, the two had made amends. Davern also describes events this way, but instead of Wood and Wagner making up, he states he also heard the two continue to argue from where he was on the bridge of the boat, and even claims he heard the dinghy being untied. He claims there was then silence until Wagner returned at about 11:30 pm looking “tousled and sweating profusely, as if he had been in a terrible fight, an ordeal of some kind.” Davern also says that Wagner discouraged him from turning on the flood lights, or starting up the engine in any attempt to search for her, saying that Wagner said he didn’t want to alert the people nearby.

Davern has since said that he has always believed something malicious may have occurred to Wood, as he believes she would have never tried to go to shore alone, and feels sure if she did want to return, she would have had him take her, as she had the night before. Based on new information, including the information from Davern, the case was reopened in 2011. In 2012, the LA County Coroner’s Office changes the cause of death from “accidental drowning”, to, “drowning and other undetermined factors.”

Hard to explain bruises and abrasions on the body

The new reports casts more questions on the nature of the bruises and abrasions on Woods’ body, positing that they likely had to have been on her body before she fell into the water. Dr. Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran, the chief medical examiner, said in the report, “the location of the bruises, the multiplicity of the bruises, lack of head trauma, or facial bruising, support bruising having occurred prior to entry in the water. Since there are unanswered questions and limited additional evidence available for evaluation, it is opined by this medical examiner that the manner of death should be left as undetermined.”

As of 2013, the LA County Sheriff Department’s spokesman, Steve Whitmore, has described the case as “open and ongoing. Nothing definitive has closed it.” However, he had also previously stated that Wagner is not a suspect. Natalie’s sister said, “I can’t imagine that he,” being Wagner, “purposely would have done anything to hurt Natalie. However, I know things happen when there is too much drinking and fighting.”

Whether or not he was responsible, Wagner claims to feel responsible in part for her death in that he did not notice she was gone sooner. Christopher Walken has spoken on the incident as a whole officially saying, “the people who are convinced that there was something more to it than what came out in the investigation will never be satisfied with the truth. Because the truth is, there is nothing more to it. It was an accident.” Dwayne Rashure, the former lead police investigator on the case, still says, “I can’t tell you exactly how she got in the water.”

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