Hollywood star back under suspicion for wife’s death

ROBERT Wagner has been named as a “person of interest” in the death of Natalie Wood, 36 years after she drowned mysteriously.

The bombshell revelation that police are unimpressed by the veteran movie star’s account of the tragedy means they may no longer accept the coroner’s verdict that his late wife’s death was accidental.

The allegation surrounding the Hollywood couple is made in a forthcoming documentary.

Los Angeles County Sheriff ’s Department Lieutenant John Corina, who leads the investigation, tells the programme, 48 Hours:

“As we’ve investigated the case over the past six years, I think he’s more of a person of interest now. I haven’t seen him tell the details that match all the other witnesses in this case.

“I think he’s constantly changed his story a little bit. And his version of events just doesn’t add up.”

Detectives investigating Wood’s November 1981 death, after the case was reopened in 2011, told CBS there were numerous bruises on her arms and body that were mentioned in the autopsy report.

“She looked like the victim of an assault,” said Detective Ralph Hernandez. “We have not been able to prove this was a homicide. And we haven’t been able to prove that this was an accident, either.”

When asked if her death could have been murder, Cor- ina said: “I think it’s suspicious enough to make us think something happened.”

Wagner, now 87 and married to former Bond Girl Jill St John, did not immediately comment. He has always denied any involvement in Wood’s death and says it “shattered” him.

Police have previously insisted he wasn’t a suspect.

Wood’s death remains one of Hollywood’s great unresolved mysteries. She drowned while sailing on their yacht, Splendour, with her husband and their friend, actor Christopher Walken, off the island of Catalina in Southern California.

Her daughter, Natasha, remembers begging Wood not to go and told People magazine in 2016 she had a “funny feel- ing” about the weekend away.

On the night before Wood’s death, the three Hollywood actors enjoyed a boozy dinner at a smart restaurant on the island and were seen returning to the boat at about 10pm.

Wood, the 43-year-old star of West Side Story and Rebel Without A Cause, was found floating in a cove at 8am the following morning about a mile from the yacht with its dinghy beached nearby. She was wearing a long nightgown, socks and jacket.

A post-mortem examination revealed not only the bruises, but an abrasion on her left cheek. A coroner ruled in 1981 she had died accidentally from drowning and hypothermia.

He said her bruises were consistent with drowning and said she might have drunkenly slipped and hit her head while trying to board the dinghy.

In Wagner’s 2008 memoir, Pieces of My Heart, he said that after a night of drinking, he and Walken had got into a heated argument about Wood’s career.

“I picked up a wine bottle, slammed it on the table and broke it into pieces,” he recalled.

Nobody knew why she fell off the boat: “There are only two possibilities: either she was trying to get away from the argument, or she was trying to tie (up) the dinghy.”

However, the case was reopened in 2011 after appeals from Wood’s sister, Lana, and the Splendour’s skipper, Dennis Davern, who claimed Wood and Wagner had got into another argument after Walken went to bed. This “terrible argument” was never mentioned to investigators, said Davern, who insisted Wagner was responsible for Wood’s death.

The skipper claimed there was a four-hour delay before the coastguard was called.

Lana Wood has long claimed her ex-brother-in-law hadn’t been honest with police.

In 2013, she claimed Davern had once confided that Wagner had pushed Wood overboard and refused to help her once she was in the water.

“Leave her there. Teach her a lesson,” Wagner allegedly told his skipper. He claimed there was a four-hour delay before the coastguard was called.– Daily Mail