Death was ‘suspicious’; Wagner ‘person of interest’
LOS ANGELES — New witnesses have emerged in the 1981 drowning of actress Natalie Wood, prompting investigators to deem it a “suspicious death” and name her former husband, 87-year-old actor Robert Wagner, a “person of interest,” the Los Angeles sheriff’s office said.
For nearly four decades, mystery and speculation have swirled around the death of the actress, who was nominated for three Academy Awards and starred in “West Side Story” and “Rebel Without a Cause.”
She was on a yacht with Wagner, actor Christopher Walken and the boat captain on Thanksgiving weekend of 1981. Her body was found floating in the waters off Southern California’s Catalina Island. She was 43.
Investigators initially ruled it an accident but reopened the case in 2011 to see whether Wagner or anyone else played a role after the boat’s captain said he heard the couple arguing the night of her disappearance. The coroner’s office amended Wood’s death certificate the next year to include “drowning and other undetermined factors.”
In a statement Thursday, sheriff’s office spokeswoman Nicole Nishida said new witnesses interviewed since the case was reopened gave statements that “portray a new sequence of events on the boat that night.”
One of the witnesses described hearing yelling and crashing sounds coming from the couple’s stateroom, she said. Shortly after that, separate witnesses heard a man and woman arguing on the back of the boat and believe the voices were those of Wood and Wagner, Nishida said.
The statements differed from the original version of events provided by witnesses, including those who were on the boat, she said.
The sheriff’s office said that Wagner is considered a person of interest.
“Do we have enough to make an arrest at this moment? No,” Nishida said.
The police statement was issued after CBS News aired an interview with Lt. John Corina of the sheriff’s office, who said he doesn’t believe Wagner has told the whole story about what happened. Wagner has not been interviewed since the probe was reopened. Investigators said in 2013 that they had tried at least 10 times to interview him but he refused.
Wagner has denied any involvement in his wife’s death and no charges have been filed. His publicist, Alan Nierob, declined comment Thursday.
Conflicting versions of what happened on the yacht have contributed to the mystery of her death. Wood, Wagner and Walken had all been drinking heavily in the hours before the actress disappeared.
A dead goose fell from the sky and knocked a 51-yearold hunter unconscious on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
Around 5 p.m. Thursday in Easton, Maryland, Robert Meilhammer, of Crapo, Maryland, was hunting with three others when someone in the group fired on a flock of Canada geese overhead.
One of the geese fell and hit Meilhammer, knocking him out, sending two teeth flying and causing head and facial injuries, according to Candy Thomson, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Natural Resources Police. Meilhammer was airlifted to a shock trauma unit.
When Meilhammer came to, he knew who he was but “little else,” said a Natural Resources police officer.