Robert Wagner not a suspect in Natalie Wood’s death
Actor Robert Wagner is off the hook because he has not been considered as a suspect in the death of his wife, actress Natalie Wood 30 years ago.
According to reports, the Los Angeles County Coroner Thomas Noguchi has changed the cause of death of Natalie Wood from “accident” to “undetermined.” Law enforcement sources said that the reason for changing the cause of death is that a bruising was found on the actress’ body, but is not necessarily consistent with an accident. However, it also does not prove that there has been a foul play.
The long-standing, unsupported rumors linking Robert Wagner to the 1982 death by drowning of the “West Side Story” star intensified after the Los Angeles police decided to re-open the investigation last year.
When the reports came out last weekend that the Los Angeles County Coroner Thomas Noguchi has altered the death certificate of Natalie Wood, it was rather seen as a sign that the authorities are about to charge somebody for her demise. However, the change was said to be procedural.
The law enforcement source, who refused to give a name, told media outlet TMZ that because it was technically possible that bruises found on Natalie Wood’s body could be explained either by colliding with the side of the yacht from which the actress fell from accidentally or by her being assaulted, her death should have never been listed as an “accident.”
Reports say that coroner Noguchi allegedly “jumped to a conclusion” that the death of Natalie Wood back in 1982 was accidental. But while the new attribution of “undetermined” on her death certificate is said to be more accurate, the investigation that has been re-opened is “at a dead end” with “certainly no evidence” leading the detectives to a suspect, as well as no new evidence to suggest a foul play has occured.
Natalie Wood is said to have had seven or eight glasses of wine on the night she drowned off the coast of California. She was yachting with Robert Wagner at that time, together with actor and friend, Christopher Walken.
When Robert Wagner published his autobiography titled “Pieaces of My Heart” in 2008, he broke his long silence about the death of spouse Natalie Wood. He admitted in his book that he felt some form of jealousy out of Wood’s relationship with Walken, with whom she was shooting a movie at that time.
On the night Natalie Wood died, Robert Wagner said that the three of them got into an argument wherein Christopher Walken had been urging Natalie Wood to put her career first before her family. Angry at what the actor had said, Robert Wagner smashed a bottle of wine on a table.
At that point, Wagner said that Wood went below to their cabin while he and Walken went on deck to cool things down. After that, he never saw his wife again. However, friends say Robert Wagner believes Wood heard the ship’s dinghy knocking on the side of their yacht and went to tie it up properly, then subsequently falling into the water.