Natalie Wood went missing from the yacht she shared with her husband, Robert Wagner, in 1981, only to be discovered floating facedown in the Pacific Ocean six hours later. For Vanity Fair in 2000, Sam Kashner examined the incident, revealing the uncertainties that have sparked decades of debate about whether Wood’s death was truly an accident. The next year, Suzanne Finstad published Natasha, the authoritative biography of Wood, which revealed even more details about Wood’s death. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department resumed the investigation into Wood’s death in 2011.

The circumstances surrounding her fall in the sea are still unclear. Natalie was found with bruises on her torso and arms, as well as a facial abrasion on her left cheek, according to an autopsy report obtained by BBC News at the time, raising questions about whether Natalie’s death was the result of foul play. According to the Los Angeles Times, a lady on a neighboring boat also told authorities she had heard a woman screaming that night.

Natalie Wood was 43 at the time. She had been a popular child actress, first gaining national attention in the 1947 Christmas classic Miracle on 34th Street, in which she played the skeptical, precocious Susan Walker, and then as a beautiful ingenue in films like the 1961 musical West Side Story, in which she played a graceful Maria. For her major roles in Rebel Without a Cause, Splendor in the Grass, and Love With a Proper Stranger, she was nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Actress by the age of 25.

Robert Wagner kisses Natalie Wood’s coffin at her funeral.
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Natasha Gregson Wagner, Wood’s daughter, asks her stepfather about the event in the documentary Natalie Wood: What Remains.

An emotional Wagner tells his stepdaughter, “Nobody heard anything,” and adds, “That night has gone through my mind so many times.”

Natalie’s death was initially deemed an “accidental drowning,” but the case was reviewed in 2011 after the boat’s captain, Dennis Davern, who was also there on the night Natalie died, publicly revealed that he had misled to authorities about the events of that night. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Natalie’s death certificate was changed in 2012 to state that she died of “drowning and other undetermined factors,” not simply a “accidental drowning.”

Wood and a small group, including her husband, Robert Wagner, had left the Splendour for a restaurant supper on Catalina Island, according to the investigator’s report attached to Thomas T. Noguchi, the Los Angeles county medical examiner’s paperwork. The “intoxicated” gang returned to the yacht around 10 p.m., using Valiant, the yacht’s dinghy. Robert Wagner told the investigators that Natalie retired for the night in the couple’s cabin at approximately 10:45 p.m., but after talking for a while longer with their guest, Natalie’s co-star at the time Christopher Walken, Wagner went to join her in the cabin, only to find her missing.

According to the New York Times, the original inquiry into the Rebel Without a Cause star’s death discovered that she died while “slightly intoxicated,” Natalie may have been under the influence of alcohol when she slipped and fell into the sea while attempting to board a dinghy, according to Noguchi.

The dinghy was also missing, so Wagner and others “immediately” radioed for assistance. The Harbor Patrol, private searchers, and finally the Coast Guard scoured the ocean and island shoreline, and Natalie’s floating body was eventually discovered by a Sheriff’s Department aircraft. On November 29th, she was declared dead at 7:44 a.m.

Lana Wood, Natalie’s sister, has disputed this idea, claiming that Natalie was always frightened of wide ocean and would never try to leave the boat alone. Lana once said, according to the New York Times, “Natalie would not go anywhere not fully made-up, wearing something terrific. She certainly would not get into a dinghy in her nightgown by herself. She would get dressed, put on full makeup and have Dennis Davern take her ashore to stay in a motel on Catalina, which is exactly what she did the night before, when she wanted to leave.”

Natalie Wood and James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause.
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What did Walken have to say about it? The actor does not appear in the documentary and has seldom spoken about Wood’s death, but he has made vague references in the past.

“I don’t know what happened,” Walken told People five years after Wood died. “She slipped and fell in the water. I was in bed then. It was a terrible thing.”

He added: “Look, we’re in a conversation I won’t have. It’s a f***ing bore.”

Natalie went to bed before everyone else that night, Christopher said in another interview. According to The Hollywood Reporter, he told Playboy Magazine, “What happened that night only she knows, because she was alone. She had gone to bed before us, and her room was at the back. A dinghy was bouncing against the side of the boat, and I think she went out to move it. There was a ski ramp that was partially in the water. It was slippery—I had walked on it myself. She had told me she couldn’t swim; in fact, they had to cut a swimming scene from [Brainstorm]. She was probably half asleep, and she was wearing a coat.”

He added: “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.”

Wagner was joined by friends, relatives, and the crème of the entertainment industry for Wood’s funeral on December 3rd, which featured Laurence Olivier, Frank Sinatra, Gregory Peck, and Rock Hudson.

Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood in June of 1981.
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Robert Wagner, 88, was “a person of interest” in her death, according to John Corina, a lieutenant in the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department Homicide Bureau, who stated during the February news conference that they would want to talk with him again and hear his version of events. People on boats anchored near the Wagner yacht heard a couple arguing loudly and a lady begging for help, according to a new eyewitness.

“[Wagner] is a person of interest, because he was the last one with Natalie Wood. And somehow she ends up in the water and drowns,” said Corina.

Suzanne Finstad, author of Natasha: The Biography of Natalie Wood, adds, “The case is still open.” When Finstad’s book was released in 2009, it included shocking accusations about fights between Wood and Wagner just before she went missing from their boat. Dennis Davern, the boat’s skipper, who is now 70 years old, was the source. Corina stated in a news conference in February that witness testimonies from people who heard a couple fight mirrored what Davern had claimed in recent police interviews.

Robert hasn’t been entirely honest with all the circumstances surrounding that night, according to a Los Angeles County sheriff’s detective. ” In an interview with CBS News’ 48 Hours, Lt. John Corina remarked, “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 don’t add up.”