Witnesses Come Forward 30 Years Too Late To Avenge Natalie Wood
TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE
Witnesses Come Forward 30 Years Too Late To Avenge Natalie Wood
THE GOOD THAT'LL COME FROM REOPENING THE INVESTIGATION into Natalie Wood's mysterious murder death is that her estate might rake in a few more dollars. 'Cause it's doubtful the query's outcome will end any differently than it did 30 years ago.
As CBS prepares to air its hour on enduring Hollywood mysteries, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department says it will revisit Wood's 1981 death based on statements by the captain of the Splendour from which Wood fell and drowned. And now a second witness claims she heard a woman crying for help the night Wood died. The glamorous star's death made headlines and provoked whispered speculation that she was a victim of foul play.
Wood had been partying with her husband, actor Robert Wagner, as well as Christopher Walken, her costar in the movie, Brainstorm, the night she drowned. The Hollywood Reporter reports that Walken has hired attorney Mathew Rosengart to represent him in the reopened case.
In his 2008 book, Pieces Of My Heart: A Life, Wagner wrote: "The last time I saw my wife she was fixing her hair in the bathroom while I was arguing with Chris. I saw her shut the door. She was going to bed.’' He claims he noticed the dingy gone a little while later and notified the Coast Guard, which "started the search and rescue, crisscrossing the ocean surface with helicopters. Hour after hour -- nothing.’'
But that account counters from what Dennis Davern has told investigators and and the Today show. Davern claims Wagner had a violent argument with Wood, heard him shout "get off my f*cking boat,” and then waited four hours to call for help after she disappeared.
"I immediately wanted to radio for help and to turn on the searchlight,'' Davern wrote in a statement to authorities. "But Robert Wagner told me, sternly, 'We are not going to do that. We will wait and see if she returns.' While we waited, Wagner opened scotch and poured alcohol for me. He encouraged me to drink."
Now a woman who was on a nearby boat 50 feet from the Splendour has told investigators that she heard a woman yelling for help near Wood's boat the night she died.
"A woman’s voice, crying for help, awakened...me," retired stockbroker Marilyn Wayne told the U.K.'s Daily Mail> “ 'Help me, someone please help me, I’m drowning', we heard repeatedly.’' She also claims that she received a note three days later in her mail slot warning: “If you value your life, keep quiet about what you know."
Monday morning, Wood's sister Lana spoke with Today's Matt Lauer and said ''unfortunately" she believes Davern's claims.
"I'm scared, I'm nervous, I'm happy, I think. I'm so ambivalent,'' Lana said. "It's almost like having to relive her death again."
RadarOnline has tracked down the Coast Guard captain who recovered Wood's body from the water. “She must have been hanging onto the safety line on the boat drifting out of the harbor for hours,'' Roger Smith told the online tab. " Her eyes were still open so I closed them and covered her with a blanket.” He said Wood "died because of politics and poor decision making on many peoples’ part, as she cried for help for hours that night.” Now Smith claims that when he asked Wagner why he didn't call for help earlier, he replied to the effect, "We thought she was off on another boat screwing around because that's the kind of woman she is."
Wagner, now 81, has released a statement welcoming the investigation, and why not? Thirty years after the accident, it's unlikely authorities will ever be able to build a case to convict him of a crime baes on 30-year-old testimony.
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