Robert Wagner Now A 'person Of Interest' In Natalie Wood's Death

[Sarah]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42911769

US police investigating the mysterious death of film star Natalie Wood say her husband Robert Wagner is now a person of interest.

Investigators in Los Angeles say Wagner has "constantly changed his story", adding that his version of events does not "add up".

Wood was found drowned in 1981 during a California boat trip with Wagner and the actor Christopher Walken.

Her death was ruled to have been an accident but questions have lingered.

"As we've investigated the case over the last six years, I think [Wagner] is more of a person of interest now," Lt John Corina of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's office told CBS News.

"We know now that he was the last person to be with Natalie before she disappeared," he said. "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," Lt Corina added.

Conflicting versions of what happened on the yacht have contributed to the mystery of how the actress died in November 1981.

Family members have previously asked for authorities to re-examine the findings of the original investigation.

 

[Karin Schill]

I read about this last night. I feel sorry for their daughter. She was like 7 when he mom died.

 

[Sarah]

Natasha starred in Urban Legend:

 

[bmasters9]

37 years later, and now he's a "person of interest"?! Absurd!

 

[Emelee]

It's not absurd, this is quite often how cold cases go. The first investigation group missing some important details which is later looked into when new people (new eyes) take over the investigation. But by then it may be too hard to prove.

(I've seen many real life cold cases programs).

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

People have turned this into Jack & Bobby hovering over Marilyn with a pillow.

I mean, I guess RJ and Chris could have knocked her off, literally, either singularly or together. But I've never really been convinced.

 

[Willie Oleson]

I've seen many real life cold cases programs

I wouldn't use that argument in "real life"

 

[Mel O'Drama]

"The case had all the ingredients of a Hart to Hart episode: marriage, glamour, luxury, mystery – save one crucial gap: resolution."

 

[Emelee]

I wouldn't use that argument in "real life"

Documentaries aren't real enough?

 

[Willie Oleson]

Documentaries aren't real enough?

I guess they're real enough to most people.

 

[Emelee]

I guess they're real enough to most people.

What kind of documentaries do you watch?

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

The captain of Wagner's yacht claims that RJ suspected Wood was having an affair with Walken, that RJ was obviously jealous in the Catalina bars, and that a fight later occurred on the yacht resulting in Walken retiring to his bedroom first. RJ and Wood continued the fight in their cabin; it got so bad the captain went and knocked on the door, and was told to go away by the enraged face of drunken Wagner. Supposedly, the Wood-Wagner fight continued to escalate until it suddenly stopped, the noise shattered by a permanent silence.

Later, RJ emerged and told the captain that his wife was missing; the captain felt Wagner had ample time to untie the dingy and push it, with or without Natalie, out into the water. Supposedly, Wagner then kept trying to delay any search for Wood, her body found adrift hours later. The next day, a sober Wagner cajoled the captain and Walken into keeping their stories aligned and consistent.

One of the officers now believes the reports of female cries for "help!" heard from a nearby boat was just a mistake.

Who knows? But there were lots of eerie movie moments in Natalie's career that seemed to foreshadow her ending by decades, to say nothing of her well-known fear of deep, dark water.

That said, for the zodiacally retentive, Wood has the same major horoscopic configuration as the Lindbergh baby.

 

[Willie Oleson]

to say nothing of her well-known fear of deep, dark water.

I remember when my mother told me, probably while watching a Natalie Wood movie, how odd it was that she died from something she feared the most.
So that's how I know it, but how did she know? How and why did this become a well-known fear?

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

I remember when my mother told me, probably while watching a Natalie Wood movie, how odd it was that she died from something she feared the most.
So that's how I know it, but how did she know? How and why did this become a well-known fear?

I recall the event quite clearly, soon followed by William Holden's untimely death -- and there they were, the spouses, RJ and Stepfanie Powers, every week on HART TO HART, being produced by a man Wagner and Wood had just sued over re-routing profits from CHARLIE'S ANGELS (which the Wagners co-owned) to STARSKY & HUTCH.

Powers never actually married Holden.

Anyway, Natalie gave interviews mentioning her fear of water.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Anyway, Natalie gave interviews mentioning her fear of water.

Do you remember what kind of interviews? Because there's a difference between focussing on a theme/phobia (a la Oprah Winfrey) or the answer to random questions like: what kind of fruit do you like the most/did you want to become an actress when you were a child/what's your biggest fear etc etc.

How did this subject come up in the first place? Everyone's afraid of something but apparently her fear was relevant. Had it something to do with a movie she's done? Did she struggle with certain scenes because they took place on/in/close to deep water? What kind of impact did it have on her life, personally and professionally? Was she asked to do The Poseidon Adventure or something like that?

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Do you remember what kind of interviews? Because there's a difference between focussing on a theme/phobia (a la Oprah Winfrey) or the answer to random questions like: what kind of fruit do you like the most/did you want to become an actress when you were a child/what's your biggest fear etc etc.

How did this subject come up in the first place? Everyone's afraid of something but apparently her fear was relevant. Had it something to do with a movie she's done? Did she struggle with certain scenes because they took place on/in/close to deep water? What kind of impact did it have on her life, personally and professionally? Was she asked to do The Poseidon Adventure or something like that?

Don't know. She said it in some interviews, including a TV interview she did the year before she died.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Here's Natalie's wildly neurotic sister, Lana Wood, in 2011 relaying a slightly different version of the captain's story -- and, if true, it's the most damning (and perhaps the funniest)... at about 03:00 :

 

[Willie Oleson]

She said it in some interviews, including a TV interview she did the year before she died

She seemed to be a good talker (i.e. knowing how to express her thoughts). It was also a very friendly interviewer, maybe that helps.

 

[Toni]

I like documentaries like the one above...​

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Here's Natalie's wildly neurotic sister, Lana Wood, in 2011 relaying a slightly different version of the captain's story -- and, if true, it's the most damning (and perhaps the funniest)... at about 03:00 :

And just what ghastly, untrue things did Wagner say about Natalie in his book?

Lana herself wrote a book shortly after her sister's death -- a book RJ rejected at the door when a copy was sent to him -- in which she asserted Natalie "could be selfish and shitty" (well, that's not unusual, I guess), but is what Wagner later said that much worse?

I never read his book, and have forgotten any excerpts I may have run across in the press.

I mean, did he make any jokes about his late wife being the only kind of wood that doesn't float? Because that would be horrible.