Ham on Wry Award-Natalie Wood's Death Updates

Natalie Wood  (left) with her Sister Lana, Getty Images

The Ham on Wry Award goes to the reopened investigation of Natalie Wood's death November 29, 1981.  New information makes the case more and more curious, although determining the credibility of such evidence  poses great difficulty after thirty years.  To recap, Dennis Davern, the captain of the yacht on which Wood, her husband Robert Wagner, and her co-star Christopher Walken from the movie Brainstorm were cruising off Catalina Island, now claims that Wagner bears responsibility for Wood's death (see November 18 post).

This week, two additional witnesses have come forward with evidence that raises questions about the original investigation in Wood's drowning.  Earlier this week, Entertainment Tonight interviewed Marilyn Wayne, a woman who was cruising with her boyfriend and her son in the area where Woods drowned.  She said that her boyfriend John heard a woman screaming, woke her and her son, and they also heard the screams.  She called the sheriff's department in Avalon, and they said they would send a helicopter to search the waters.  It never came, and she was never interviewed after Wood was found.  She also claims that she received a threatening note telling her to keep quiet about the incident three days after it occurred.  Unless she kept that note, that part will be difficult to prove.

The second witness tells a story based on a first-hand account because he found Natalie Wood and pulled her out of the water.  Captain Roger Smith, a Los Angeles County supervising rescue boat captain, at the time, has had doubts about what happened since that day.  He believes that Wood could have been saved, if the search had started earlier and supported that conclusion by stating, “Based on the condition of her body when we pulled her from the water, I believe she survived for some time in the water and was blown out to sea. She probably cried for help for hours. I’ve always believed she could have been saved. Her fingers were still pliable when she was pulled from the water, suggesting she had not been dead for hours."(quote from an article written by Richard Winton, LA Times)

Han on Wry refrains from drawing specific conclusions yet.  However, it appears that the investigation that occurred in 1981 did not assemble all of the facts, nor did the detectives conduct some relevant interviews that might have brought more clarity to the case.  The coroner did not draw the same conclusions as the man who pulled her from the water, which seems odd.  The public might never learn the full truth of Wood's death, but the original account has some gaping holes.  Ham on Wry hopes that the new investigation can bring closure for those who have had unanswered questions for thirty years.