Sister Wants Natalie Wood Case Reopened

Sister, yacht captain want 1981 case reopened
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 8, 2010 10:16 AM CST
Sister Wants Natalie Wood Case Reopened
1969: Portrait of American actor Natalie Wood (1938 - 1981), wearing false eyelashes and thick eyeliner with a ribbed turtleneck and hoop earrings, posing outdoors.   (Getty Images)

The official theory behind Natalie Wood’s untimely death is that the actress slipped while on her yacht—but Wood’s sister and the yacht captain want the investigation reopened, citing a fight Wood had with husband Robert Wagner prior to drowning. “I just want the truth to come out, the real story,” Lana Wood tells CNN, adding that she still doesn’t suspect foul play. Both Dennis Davern, the yacht captain, and Wagner himself have recounted the 1981 fight in recent books.

Davern misled investigators at the time, however, at Wagner’s request—and now says he regrets it, and believes there was a cover-up. One mystery involves the apparent delay before Wagner summoned authorities. And Wagner’s story—he believed Wood had just gone off partying—doesn’t ring true for her sister, either. “She would never go to another boat or to shore dressed in a nightgown and socks,” says Lana, adding that when she saw Wagner after the death, he said, “It was an accident, you have to believe me, it was an accident.”
(More Natalie Wood stories.)

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