Dive into the mysterious story of Natalie Wood's tragic and unsolved death! Hollywood drama, a yacht shrouded in mystery, and a decades-long mystery—this case has it all. Was it an accident or something more? Watch till the end to decide for yourself! Subscribe for more true crime and Hollywood tales, and drop a comment telling us your favorite twist in the story! #TrueCrime #Hollywood #Mystery #NatalieWood #UnsolvedCases
👉 This channel was created in collaboration with https://www.youtube.com/@paul_lando
0:06 - Discovery of Natalie Wood's Body
1:45 - The Weekend Trip Begins
6:08 - Natalie Wood's Early Life and Fears
10:46 - Personal and Professional Life
13:25 - Events Leading Up to Natalie’s Disappearance
17:20 - The Aftermath and Official Investigation
23:20 - Reopened Case and New Testimonies
27:10 - Unanswered Questions and Lasting Legacy
We're now available on Spotify! Listen now https://open.spotify.com/show/033MgMUOXQEOYvZBJxmxir
👉 This channel was created in collaboration with https://www.youtube.com/@paul_lando
0:06 - Discovery of Natalie Wood's Body
1:45 - The Weekend Trip Begins
6:08 - Natalie Wood's Early Life and Fears
10:46 - Personal and Professional Life
13:25 - Events Leading Up to Natalie’s Disappearance
17:20 - The Aftermath and Official Investigation
23:20 - Reopened Case and New Testimonies
27:10 - Unanswered Questions and Lasting Legacy
We're now available on Spotify! Listen now https://open.spotify.com/show/033MgMUOXQEOYvZBJxmxir
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:05On Sunday morning, November 29th, 1981, a man who had been walking along the coast of Santa
00:14Catalina Island in California for hours saw a red spot floating near some rocks.
00:20When he got close enough, he understood that what he was looking at was a red jacket on
00:27the body of a woman with her hair spread out over the surface of the water.
00:33Underneath the jacket, she was wearing a flannel nightgown.
00:37The woman was just over a mile away from the yacht where she had spent the night.
00:43Aboard this yacht, three men remained, her husband, a guest actor, and the boat's captain.
00:53They were the last three people to have seen her alive.
00:57And all three told essentially the same story.
01:01Two weeks later, the authorities closed the case as an accidental drowning.
01:09The explanation was that she had gone out alone at dawn in her nightgown to secure an inflatable
01:15dinghy banging against the hull and that she had slipped.
01:21But there was a problem with that explanation.
01:25The woman didn't know how to swim.
01:27In fact, she had been terrified of the ocean ever since she was a little girl.
01:33A fear that everyone around her knew about.
01:37So none of them believed a single word of what was officially stated.
01:42Her name was Natalie Wood.
01:45She was 43 years old and was one of the greatest actresses Hollywood had ever produced.
01:5230 years later, one of those three men who was on board that night sat down in front of a
02:00television camera
02:01and admitted that he had lied.
02:13Today's story begins on Friday, November 27, 1981.
02:18At the marina in Marina del Rey, west of Los Angeles.
02:23That day, a yacht named Splendor set sail.
02:26A vessel about 18 meters long, which Natalie and her husband had named after the English title of Splendor in
02:35the Grass.
02:36The movie that had consolidated her career 20 years earlier.
02:41The destination was Santa Catalina Island.
02:45A piece of land about 22 miles off the California coast that, at the time,
02:51served as the backyard for the wealthy people of Los Angeles.
02:55It was a place of crystal clear waters and hidden coves with very few prying eyes around.
03:01And the plan was to spend the long Thanksgiving weekend there.
03:04On board were four people.
03:07Natalie Wood, 43 years old, who at that time was finishing filming a sci-fi movie called Brainstorm.
03:14Robert Wagner, her husband, also an actor whom she had married twice
03:20and who, at that time, was enjoying the best professional moment of his life
03:25thanks to a television show airing nationwide.
03:29Christopher Walken, probably one of the most well-known,
03:32was also Natalie's co-star in that movie they were filming.
03:37Invited by the couple to spend a few days on the boat and Dennis Davern, the yacht's captain that day.
03:43A man who had been working for the couple for years and knew Natalie much better than anyone could have
03:50imagined.
03:52The trip got off on the wrong foot from day one.
03:55That first night, already anchored off the island, Natalie didn't want to stay and sleep on the boat.
04:00She asked the captain to take her ashore in the dinghy.
04:03She rented two rooms in a small hotel on the island and spent the night there.
04:08The explanation given later was that the sea was very rough and that she couldn't rest anymore with the rocking.
04:17Other versions say that Natalie and her husband had argued that night and she wanted to sleep somewhere else.
04:24It later came out that Natalie cried all night.
04:29She told the captain about the problems she had with her husband and his jealousy toward her professional career and
04:36that she wanted to leave him.
04:38On Saturday the 28th, Natalie woke up and asked the captain to take her back to the boat,
04:43saying she wanted to put everything that had happened behind her and enjoy the trip again.
04:48The group got back together and spent the day touring different spots around the island.
04:54As evening fell, they went ashore once more.
04:59Natalie and Christopher went first and they waited for the others at the bar of the Duke's Harbor Reef restaurant
05:05in the Two Harbors area.
05:06When Robert and Dennis, the captain, arrived at the place, they saw Natalie and Christopher laughing and drinking.
05:16And as Dennis later recounted, Robert got very upset when he saw them like that.
05:20The testimonies of the people who were at the restaurant that night agree on two things.
05:25The first is that a lot of alcohol was consumed.
05:29Approximately two bottles of wine and two of champagne among the diners, in addition to cocktails.
05:36The second is that the mood at that table shifted as the night went on and that when the group
05:41got up to leave,
05:43around 10 p.m. it was no longer the same dinner that had begun.
05:48A couple of hours earlier, they returned to the splendor in the inflatable dinghy.
05:53What happened on board between that hour and dawn is still Hollywood's best kept secret today.
06:01But before getting into that, you have to understand,
06:05who the woman was who stepped onto that boat that night.
06:08Because practically everything that keeps this case open after more than 40 years
06:15has to do with who she was and with something that happened to her when she was 10 years old.
06:32Natalie Wood wasn't born with that name.
06:36She was born in San Francisco on July 20, 1938,
06:40and she had been registered under the name Natalia Nikolaevna Sayarenko.
06:47Sorry if I didn't say it right, but it's pretty complicated.
06:50She was the daughter of two Russian immigrants who had arrived in the United States
06:55fleeing the consequences of the civil war in their country.
06:59His father worked as a carpenter and set builder.
07:03And his mother, named Maria, had been a dancer.
07:07And she harbored an ambition that she hadn't been able to fulfill in her own life.
07:13Over time, the family Americanized the last name,
07:17and the little girl became known as Natasha Gurdon.
07:21The stage name, Natalie Wood, would be given to her by a studio executive years later.
07:27And right here is the detail that runs through this entire story, from beginning to end.
07:33According to the story, which the family repeated for decades,
07:37when Maria was pregnant with Natalie,
07:40she stopped in the street to have a woman read her palm.
07:43That woman told her that her daughter was going to be a huge star,
07:46that the whole world was going to fall in love with her,
07:50but that she should be very careful that her destiny would end tragically in dark waters.
07:57Can you believe in these kinds of predictions or not?
08:00What matters here isn't whether the prophecy was real, but what Maria did with it.
08:06Maria took those words literally and organized her daughter's entire childhood
08:11around the two halves of the message.
08:13On one hand, she pushed her into acting with an almost pathological intensity,
08:18dragging her to auditions since she was four years old,
08:22and even getting real tears out of her.
08:25And you can already imagine the methods she used to pull that off.
08:29And on the other hand, she kept her away from the water.
08:33She never let her learn to swim.
08:35She kept telling her throughout her entire childhood that the water was dangerous,
08:40that deep waters were dangerous,
08:42that something bad was written there in the cards for her.
08:46Natalie grew up with such a fear of water,
08:49that as a child, she couldn't even stand having her hair washed in the sink,
08:53if it meant putting her head under the running faucet.
08:57Well, the first part of the prediction came true very quickly.
09:00By the time she was seven,
09:02she already had a major role alongside Orson Welles.
09:05At eight, she starred in Miracle on 34th Street,
09:09the holiday classic,
09:11playing the little girl who doesn't believe in Santa Claus.
09:15And she became one of the most recognized child stars of her generation.
09:20But during one of those many shoots,
09:23an accident occurred.
09:24In 1949, at age 10,
09:28Natalie was filming a movie called The Green Promise.
09:31One of the scenes required her to run across a wooden bridge over a stream
09:36amidst a storm simulated with wind and water machines.
09:41The bridge was rigged to collapse at a specific moment,
09:44with the crew ready to pull her out of the water immediately.
09:49But it turns out the bridge collapsed early.
09:52Natalie fell into the dark water,
09:55with the wind from the machines blowing in all directions,
09:58and she was left clinging to the edge of the broken structure
10:01while the cameras kept rolling.
10:03Because the director felt the footage he was capturing
10:06was too good to cut.
10:09The girl almost drowned,
10:12fractured her left wrist,
10:13and her mother,
10:15not wanting to interrupt filming,
10:17decided not to take her in for medical care,
10:20which is why her wrist never healed properly.
10:23Natalie was left with a bony lump
10:26that she hid throughout her adult life
10:28by wearing wide bracelets
10:30that ultimately became part of her signature style.
10:34The fear of water her mother had drilled into her head
10:38ceased to be an inherited idea
10:40and turned into an experience of her own.
10:43From then on, the terror became absolute.
10:46Natalie avoided the open sea,
10:49especially at night.
10:50Filming scenes involving shipwrecks or dives
10:55ended up causing her tremendous anxiety attacks years later.
10:59Meanwhile,
11:01and in spite of that,
11:03her career kept growing.
11:05At 17, she starred in Rebel Without a Cause
11:08alongside James Dean
11:09and earned her first Oscar nomination.
11:13Then came The Searchers,
11:15directed by John Ford,
11:17then Splendor in the Grass
11:19and West Side Story,
11:20which turned her into an absolute icon of American cinema.
11:26Before turning 25,
11:28she had already racked up three Oscar nominations.
11:31Her personal life was just as public.
11:34She married Robert Wagner in 1957,
11:37when she was 19 and he was 27.
11:40They seemed to be deeply in love,
11:42but an incident came to light many years later
11:45that suggested the marriage
11:47apparently wasn't as wonderful
11:49as it appeared on the outside.
11:51A neighbor of the couple at the time
11:54recounted that one night,
11:56Natalie knocked on his door.
11:58She was terrified.
12:00She told him her husband wanted to kill her,
12:03but the next day,
12:04she returned home to her husband.
12:06The marriage ended years later
12:08because they divorced in 1962.
12:11In 1962.
12:13In 1969,
12:15Natalie married a British producer
12:16and had a daughter with him.
12:19She divorced again in 1972
12:22and that same year,
12:23she remarried Robert,
12:25after which they had a daughter together in 1974.
12:30By the late 70s,
12:32Natalie was working less.
12:34She had spent several years
12:36dedicated to her daughters and her home.
12:38She had gone through bouts of anxiety and depression,
12:42which she herself openly acknowledged.
12:45And the roles they offered her
12:47weren't like the ones before.
12:48Her husband, on the other hand,
12:50was at his peak.
12:52The television series he starred in
12:54had put him back in the center of the industry
12:56after years of stagnation.
12:59Grainstorm,
13:00the movie Natalie was shooting in 1981
13:03alongside Christopher Walken,
13:05was her attempt to make a serious comeback in film.
13:09And that difference between a career that was rising
13:12and another trying to rise again
13:14ended up being the exact subject of the argument
13:17that broke out aboard the Splendor that night.
13:25We now come to the night of November 28th.
13:29First,
13:30we have to understand the dynamic that existed
13:33among the four people who were on that boat.
13:36Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood
13:37had been married for nine years
13:39on their second go-around.
13:41In the public's imagination,
13:43they were one of Hollywood's great marriages,
13:46a couple who had broken up
13:48and learned to love each other again
13:50behind closed doors.
13:52Rumor had it.
13:54It was a marriage with its good seasons
13:56and very tense seasons.
13:59Christopher Walken,
14:01the guest,
14:02had won the Oscar two years prior
14:04and was at the peak of his career.
14:07He shared the set with Natalie every day
14:10and the two had developed the kind of rapport
14:13that develops between co-stars.
14:16And then there was Dennis Davern,
14:18the captain who plays a unique role in this story.
14:21Dennis wasn't just an employee
14:23who showed up on weekends.
14:25He had worked for the couple for years.
14:28He practically lived on the boat
14:30and had a very trusting relationship with Natalie.
14:34She treated him like family.
14:36Around 10 p.m. that Saturday,
14:39the four returned from the restaurant
14:41in the inflatable dinghy,
14:43a four-meter rubber boat
14:45with an outboard motor,
14:47which was tied to the stern of the splendor
14:50and used to get to and from shore.
14:53Once aboard,
14:54the night went on,
14:55another bottle of wine was opened
14:57and the conversation drifted toward the same topic
15:00that had been discussed at the restaurant table,
15:03which was Natalie's career.
15:05According to what Dennis would state years later,
15:09Christopher was encouraging Natalie
15:11to fully commit to her work,
15:13to take on big roles
15:14and not to let her career stay on hold.
15:18Natalie was laughing
15:20and playing along with the conversation
15:22while Robert listened.
15:24At some point,
15:26Robert grabbed the wine bottle from the table
15:29and smashed it against the surface.
15:32He furiously asked Christopher
15:34if what he wanted was to sleep with his wife.
15:38Is it important to mention here
15:40that Robert admitted to the bottle incident?
15:42His version is that
15:43they argued about Natalie's career,
15:46that the argument got heated,
15:47and that in the middle of it,
15:49he broke the bottle.
15:50On that,
15:52both versions agree.
15:54Where they stop agreeing
15:55is on what happened next.
15:57According to the captain,
15:59after the outburst,
16:01Christopher retired to his stateroom
16:02and Natalie went down to hers.
16:04Then Robert went down after her.
16:06And then,
16:08the second argument started.
16:10And this one wasn't about careers anymore.
16:13Dennis stated that
16:14from the master stateroom
16:15you could hear yelling and banging
16:17things being moved around
16:19and that at one point
16:20he thought something physical
16:22was happening in there.
16:24He went up to the bridge,
16:25stood there for a while listening,
16:26and since the noise wouldn't stop,
16:28he came down and knocked on the door.
16:31The door opened.
16:32On the other side was Robert,
16:34looking half crazy.
16:35He asked him if everything was alright.
16:38And the answer was for him to leave.
16:41Dennis then left in his own words.
16:44He feared for his own safety
16:46and went back up
16:48to the bridge.
16:49That is,
16:50the last moment of that night.
16:52that there is anything
16:54like a consensus on.
16:55After that,
16:57according to the captain,
16:58the argument continued.
16:59And at some point,
17:00it suddenly stopped.
17:01There was silence
17:02and a while later,
17:04Robert came up to where he was
17:06and stayed up there drinking
17:08with the cabin door closed below.
17:10At some point in all
17:12of that,
17:13Natalie vanished.
17:16En algún punto de todo eso,
17:18Natalie desapareció.
17:20Boat.
17:27Another important fact
17:29is that the yacht
17:30wasn't alone
17:30while they were in that bay.
17:32There were other boats
17:33anchored around it.
17:36Some were quite close
17:37and aboard those boats
17:39there were,
17:40of course,
17:41people.
17:42On one of those boats,
17:44about 30 meters
17:45from the Splendor,
17:46there was a woman
17:47who woke up to a noise
17:48shortly after 11 at night.
17:50She stated that
17:51what she heard
17:53was a woman's voice
17:54calling for help,
17:56hearing over and over
17:57that she was drowning
17:58and pleading for someone
17:59to help her.
18:01She also stated
18:02that she heard
18:02a second voice,
18:03this time a man's,
18:05with slurred speech
18:06and an annoyed tone,
18:09saying something like,
18:10hang in there,
18:11that they were already
18:12coming to get her.
18:14The screams went on
18:15for about 20 minutes.
18:17The woman from the other boat
18:18woke her son,
18:19who also heard them,
18:21and she checked
18:21the digital watch
18:23the boy was wearing
18:24to know the time.
18:25She shouted into the darkness,
18:27asking him,
18:28asking where the person was,
18:30offering to jump into the water,
18:32but nobody answered her.
18:34The person with her
18:36radioed the harbor patrol
18:37and got no answer.
18:40After 11.25 that night,
18:42nothing more was heard.
18:45Meanwhile,
18:46aboard the Splendor,
18:47according to what the captain said
18:49three decades later,
18:50something else was going on.
18:52Robert realized
18:53that Natalie wasn't on the boat
18:55and he also noticed
18:56that the ding
18:57tied to the stern
18:58was missing.
18:59What Dennis stated
19:01is that he wanted
19:02to react immediately.
19:04He wanted to turn on
19:06the yacht's searchlights
19:07to sweep the surrounding water
19:09and radio for help,
19:11but Robert
19:11wouldn't let him.
19:14According to this testimony,
19:16the reason given
19:17was that
19:18they had to avoid
19:19a scandal.
19:20A yacht
19:21with three celebrities on board,
19:23turning on searchlights
19:24in the middle of the night
19:25off the island,
19:27calling the
19:28coast guard
19:29to report
19:29that a movie star
19:30had disappeared
19:31after a night
19:32of drinking.
19:33And it was going to end up
19:35on the front page
19:36of every newspaper
19:37in the country
19:38the next day.
19:39So,
19:40according to the captain,
19:41they waited.
19:42The first alert
19:44went out
19:44from the Splendor
19:45around 1.30
19:46in the morning.
19:47The full-scale search
19:49with the coast guard
19:50deployed
19:51didn't start
19:52until after
19:533.30.
19:56That means
19:57that between the time
19:58the screams were heard
19:59from the neighboring boat
20:00and the moment
20:00someone actually
20:01went looking for her
20:02more than four hours
20:03had passed.
20:06And while that was happening,
20:08there is something else
20:10we need to look at
20:11because the inflatable boat
20:13had also vanished.
20:14And that dinghy
20:15is the very piece
20:17holding together
20:18the entire official story
20:19of this case.
20:26With the first light
20:27of Sunday,
20:28November 29th,
20:29the search was already massive
20:31with the coast guard
20:32deployed
20:33and dozens of private boats
20:35and island volunteers
20:36combing the area.
20:39The first thing
20:40that turned up
20:41was the dinghy.
20:42They found it
20:43beached against the shore,
20:45empty in a cove
20:46on the island.
20:47And this is where
20:48the details
20:49that don't add up
20:50start piling up.
20:51The state
20:52it was found in
20:53indicated
20:53that no one
20:54had driven it there.
20:56that boat
20:56had drifted away,
20:58pushed by the current
20:59until it ran aground
21:00by itself
21:01on the shore.
21:02And there is one
21:03more detail
21:04about that.
21:05Natalie didn't know
21:06how to start
21:07that engine.
21:08She wouldn't have
21:09been able
21:10to start it
21:11even if she
21:12had wanted to.
21:13If Natalie
21:14had decided
21:14to leave the boat
21:15in the middle
21:16of the night,
21:17the first thing
21:17she would have done
21:18was wake up the captain
21:19so he could take her.
21:20exactly like
21:21she had done
21:22two nights before
21:23when she wanted
21:24to sleep at the hotel.
21:26Then,
21:27at 7.44 in the morning,
21:28Natalie's body
21:29was found.
21:30A local man
21:31who had joined
21:32the search
21:33in his own boat
21:33saw her from afar.
21:35A red spot
21:37moving on the water
21:38near a rocky area
21:39called Blue Cavern Point,
21:41just over a kilometer
21:42and a half
21:43from the yacht.
21:44As I mentioned before,
21:46upon getting closer,
21:47he saw it was
21:48the body
21:49of a woman
21:49in a red-down jacket.
21:53It was Natalie's body.
21:55She was wearing
21:56a nightgown,
21:56the red jacket over it,
21:58and wool socks
21:59without shoes
21:59with nothing
22:00to suggest
22:01she had planned
22:02to leave the boat.
22:03To that,
22:04we have to add
22:06what we know about her,
22:07that she couldn't swim.
22:09And,
22:10by the way,
22:10she had a fear
22:12of dark water
22:13that dated back years.
22:14And as if
22:15that weren't enough,
22:16she was a woman
22:17who,
22:18according to her
22:19her own sister,
22:20later on,
22:20wouldn't even go
22:21get the mail
22:22in her nightgown.
22:23So,
22:25are you telling me
22:26that this same woman
22:28got up in the middle
22:29of the night,
22:30alone,
22:31after having several drinks,
22:33went up on deck
22:34in a nightgown
22:35and socks
22:36and leaned over
22:37the pitch black water
22:39to handle
22:40an inflatable dinghy
22:42that was banging
22:43against the hull.
22:44Because that was
22:45the official story.
22:51The investigation
22:52lasted two weeks.
22:54The verdict was
22:55accidental drowning.
22:59The public reconstruction
23:01said that
23:02Nathalie,
23:03upset after an argument,
23:05had gone to tie down
23:06the dinghy
23:07that was banging
23:08against the yacht,
23:09that she had slipped
23:10on the swim step,
23:12used to get into the water,
23:14and that after falling in,
23:16she hadn't been able
23:16to climb back up.
23:20The alcohol in her system
23:22and the weight
23:23of her wet clothes
23:24basically did the rest.
23:26The three men on board
23:27testified that
23:28none of them
23:29had seen or heard anything
23:31and that they all assumed
23:32at the time
23:33that Nathalie
23:34had gone ashore
23:35on her own
23:35in the inflatable boat.
23:37And that's how
23:38the case was closed.
23:40But even that first report,
23:42the one supporting
23:44the accident theory,
23:45contained a detail
23:46that never sat right
23:48with anyone.
23:49Nathalie's body
23:50had bruises,
23:51several of them,
23:52on her arms,
23:54on her legs
23:55and on her knees.
23:56and she also
23:57had an abrasion
23:58on her left cheek.
24:00At the time,
24:02that was explained
24:03as the normal result
24:04of falling into the water
24:06and hitting the hole
24:07and the rocks.
24:08But her family and friends
24:10never accepted
24:11that explanation
24:11at any point.
24:13And we must also say
24:14that the public,
24:15who had grown up
24:16watching her on screen
24:17since she was
24:18an eight-year-old girl,
24:19didn't believe
24:20that explanation either.
24:23For the next 30 years,
24:25the case lived
24:26in that gray area
24:27of disbelief
24:28where the official version
24:30is accepted,
24:31but nobody truly
24:32believes it completely.
24:35Until one of the three men
24:37who was on that boat
24:39at that moment
24:40decided to speak.
24:42Dennis Davern
24:43stopped working
24:44for the family
24:45shortly after
24:46Nathalie's death.
24:47He left California,
24:49ended up settling
24:51in Florida,
24:52and set up his own
24:53boat maintenance
24:54business there.
24:55And he carried
24:56that night with him
24:57for almost three decades.
24:59In 2009,
25:00he published a book
25:01co-written
25:02with a lifelong friend
25:03where he told
25:04his full version
25:05for the first time.
25:06The translated title
25:08was something like
25:09Goodbye, Nathalie,
25:11Goodbye, Splendor.
25:13Uh-uh-uh-uh-uh.
25:15And this really blew
25:16that he said
25:18that the statement
25:18he had signed
25:19in 1980
25:20wasn't his statement.
25:23That the document
25:24had been prepared
25:25by Robert's lawyers
25:26and that he had
25:27signed off on it
25:28because at the time
25:29he felt he had
25:30no other choice.
25:32Besides,
25:33he was 30 years old
25:35with no money,
25:37no lawyer of his own,
25:38working for one
25:39of the most powerful
25:40families in the industry
25:42and in the middle
25:43of a media storm.
25:45He said he regretted
25:46staying silent,
25:47that Nathalie's death
25:48was a consequence
25:49of the botched fight,
25:51that he had wanted
25:52to call for help
25:53that night
25:53and they wouldn't let him
25:54and that the delay
25:55in reporting it
25:56was a conscious decision.
25:58When they asked him
25:59directly on television
26:00if the fight
26:01between Nathalie
26:02and her husband
26:03was what ended up
26:04leading to her death,
26:05his answer was
26:07yes.
26:08Now,
26:08it's necessary
26:09to put this into context
26:10because the captain's
26:12own testimony
26:12has its issues.
26:14Dennis sold his story
26:16to the tabloids
26:16on more than one occasion
26:18and he was paid for it.
26:20He changed his story
26:22compared to what
26:23he had originally stated
26:24and he published
26:25a book on the subject
26:26which means
26:27he had a financial interest
26:29in having the story told.
26:31It is also true
26:32that he voluntarily
26:34took polygraph tests
26:35on every point
26:36of his account
26:37and that he passed them,
26:39that he cooperated
26:40with the authorities
26:41when the case
26:42was reopened
26:43and that what he said
26:44lined up with
26:45what other witnesses
26:46who had absolutely
26:47nothing to gain
26:48would later recount.
26:50In November 2011,
26:5230 years after,
26:54that night,
26:55when this had happened,
26:56the Los Angeles authorities
26:58announced,
26:59surprisingly,
27:00that they were
27:00reopening the investigation
27:02into the death
27:03of Nathalie Wood.
27:04Subscribe.
27:10When the case
27:11was reopened,
27:12more people
27:13started talking.
27:15Over 100 people
27:16contacted the authorities
27:17after the announcement.
27:19Among them,
27:20people who had been
27:21on the island
27:22that night,
27:23people sleeping
27:24on nearby boats
27:26and acquaintances
27:27of the couple
27:28who had kept quiet
27:29for three decades.
27:31The explanation
27:33several of them
27:34gave as to why
27:34they hadn't spoken up
27:36before
27:36was basically the same.
27:38In 1981,
27:39the case was ruled
27:41an accident
27:41so quickly
27:42that they assumed
27:44what they had seen
27:45or heard
27:46wasn't important.
27:47Out of all those
27:49testimonies,
27:50two emerged
27:50that completely changed
27:51the reconstruction
27:52of that night.
27:55The first
27:56was from a witness
27:57who described
27:58hearing screams
27:59and the sounds
27:59of things crashing
28:00from the couple's cabin.
28:04The second
28:05was from other people
28:06on a different boat
28:08who said
28:08they heard a man
28:09and a woman
28:10arguing at the back
28:11of the yacht
28:12and were convinced
28:13that those voices
28:15were Natalie
28:15and her husband's.
28:18That matters a lot
28:20because it puts them
28:21both outside,
28:22at the stern,
28:23right by the water
28:24and contradicts
28:25the story
28:26that nobody knew
28:27where she was.
28:28all these new witnesses
28:30on one hand.
28:31On the other,
28:32there was the forensic side.
28:35In 2012,
28:37the Los Angeles
28:37Coroner's Office
28:38amended Natalie Wood's
28:40death certificate
28:4131 years after signing it.
28:44The cause of death
28:46was no longer
28:46accidental drowning
28:47and became drowning
28:49and other
28:49undetermined factors.
28:52At the same time,
28:54it was noted
28:55that the circumstances
28:56under which Natalie
28:57ended up in the water
28:59were not clearly established.
29:03What it said,
29:04in simple terms,
29:05was that several
29:06of the bruises
29:07Natalie had on her body,
29:08particularly those
29:10on her upper body,
29:11looked fresh
29:12and could have happened
29:13before she entered
29:14the water.
29:16How did they figure
29:18this out?
29:18Well,
29:19by looking at the location
29:21of the bruises,
29:22the number of bruises
29:23and the fact
29:24that there was
29:25no head trauma.
29:26the accident theory
29:27depended on Natalie
29:29slipping and hitting
29:30her head.
29:32If you slip on a wet step
29:34and fall into the water,
29:36what you'd expect most
29:37is a hard hit
29:38in a specific place,
29:40most likely on the head.
29:43What Natalie had was
29:44multiple bruises spread
29:46across her arms
29:47and legs
29:48and no injuries
29:50to the skull at all.
29:51Although she did have
29:53an abrasion
29:53on her left cheek,
29:55the document itself
29:56didn't attribute it
29:58to the fall.
29:59Because of all this,
30:00the document determined
30:01that it wasn't possible
30:02to rule out
30:03that Natalie
30:04had entered the water
30:05involuntarily
30:06and unintentionally.
30:07That is to say,
30:08that is to say,
30:10to make it even clearer,
30:11it cannot be ruled out
30:13that someone
30:13put her in there.
30:20In February 2018,
30:22nearly 37 years
30:23after that fateful morning,
30:25the Los Angeles authorities
30:27held a press conference
30:29and announced
30:30two things.
30:30The first was that
30:32Natalie Wood's death
30:33was officially
30:34being investigated
30:35as a suspicious death.
30:37The second was
30:38that her husband,
30:39Robert Wagner,
30:40was considered
30:41a person of interest
30:42in the case.
30:43Now keep in mind
30:45that a person of interest
30:46does not mean a suspect,
30:48much less an accused person.
30:50It means he is someone
30:52whose version of events
30:54the authorities
30:55need to review.
30:56In this case,
30:57because he was
30:58the last person
30:59who was with her before,
31:00she disappeared.
31:02Two reasons
31:03were given publicly
31:04for that classification.
31:05The first,
31:06that his account
31:07of that night
31:08had changed
31:09over the years
31:10and no longer matched
31:12what the rest
31:14of the witnesses
31:14were saying.
31:15The second,
31:16that since the case
31:18was reopened in 2011,
31:20Robert refused
31:21to speak with investigators.
31:23And of course,
31:24he is completely
31:25within his rights
31:25to do so,
31:26but the contrast
31:27frees eyebrows
31:27because Christopher Walken
31:29did speak with investigators
31:30when they asked him to.
31:31Besides,
31:33Robert always denied
31:34any involvement.
31:35In the very few interviews
31:37he gave on the subject,
31:38he always maintained
31:39the same story,
31:40that it was an accident,
31:42that no one knows
31:43exactly what happened,
31:45that he wasn't there
31:46when she fell into the water
31:47and that the loss
31:48devastated them all.
31:50The investigation
31:51remained active
31:52for a few more years,
31:53searching for the missing testimony
31:55that would tip the scales
31:56one way or the other,
31:58but that testimony
31:59never came.
32:01In the year 2022,
32:03the Los Angeles authorities
32:05issued a brief statement
32:07saying that all leads
32:09had been exhausted
32:10and that the case
32:11remained an open,
32:13unsolved case.
32:15And that if new leads
32:16emerged in the future
32:18that hadn't been investigated,
32:20the case file
32:21would be reassigned.
32:24In practice,
32:26that meant the case
32:27was moved to cold case status
32:28and Robert was no longer
32:30considered a person of interest.
32:39Now,
32:40when you piece together
32:41everything that exists about
32:43that night,
32:45what you're left with are
32:46three possible explanations.
32:48And mind you,
32:50none of the three
32:51can be proven,
32:52but neither can any of the three
32:54be completely ruled out.
32:56The first is the official version
32:58and it's the one
32:59Robert has maintained
33:00since 1981.
33:03Natalie,
33:04upset after the argument,
33:06went up on deck
33:07to secure the dinghy
33:08that was banging
33:09against the hull,
33:10slipped,
33:11fell,
33:11and with the alcohol
33:12in her system
33:13and her clothes soaked,
33:14she couldn't manage
33:15to climb back up.
33:16It also has to be taken
33:18into account
33:18that she didn't know
33:19how to swim.
33:21On top of all that,
33:23we can also add
33:24that she was afraid of water
33:25because of everything
33:26her mother had told her
33:28for years
33:28when she was younger.
33:32There's also the clothing
33:33she was found in,
33:34the absence of a blow
33:35to the head
33:36that would explain
33:37her being knocked unconscious
33:38and the captain's testimony
33:40that Natalie would never
33:41have approached
33:42the railing alone at night.
33:44The second is that
33:45the argument escalated,
33:46that what started
33:47inside the cabin
33:48continued outside
33:49on the stern
33:50near the water
33:51and that in the middle
33:53of that struggle,
33:54she ended up falling.
33:55Under these hypotheses,
33:56the bruises on her arms
33:58speak for themselves,
33:59as do the screams
34:00heard by the woman
34:01on the neighboring boat
34:02and the hours-long delay
34:04in calling for help.
34:06The third is less far-reaching
34:08but maintains that Natalie
34:09did fall into the water
34:11accidentally
34:12but that someone
34:13heard her crying for help
34:14and didn't react
34:15quickly enough.
34:17Let's remember
34:18the man's voice
34:19that the woman
34:20on the neighboring boat
34:21claimed to have heard,
34:23slurring his words,
34:25telling her to hold on.
34:27If that's the case,
34:29her death
34:29was a chain
34:30of bad decisions
34:31made during
34:32the worst possible minutes.
34:34What these three theories
34:36have in common
34:36is the exact same
34:38blank space.
34:39Between 11 o'clock
34:40PM
34:41and 1.30
34:42in the morning,
34:43there's a gap
34:44of more than two hours
34:45that only three people
34:46know about
34:47or can talk about.
35:04Natalie Wood
35:05started working
35:06in movies
35:07at four years old
35:08and never stopped.
35:09She was one of the
35:10very few child stars
35:12of her generation
35:13who managed
35:14to transition
35:14into adulthood.
35:17She had three Oscar
35:18nominations
35:19before turning 25
35:20and entire generations
35:22first knew her
35:23as the little girl
35:24who didn't believe
35:24in Santa Claus.
35:26And despite
35:28all of that,
35:29her name today
35:30is tied to a yacht
35:31and a night
35:32in November.
35:33Robert Wagner
35:34is 96 years old
35:36today,
35:36lives out of
35:37the public eye
35:38and never changed
35:39his version
35:40of the story.
35:41He was never charged
35:42with anything
35:42and since the case
35:44was reopened,
35:45he hasn't sat down
35:46with investigators
35:46again either.
35:48Christopher Walken
35:48went on to build
35:49one of the most
35:50solid careers
35:51in American cinema
35:52and he hasn't spoken
35:53publicly about the subject
35:55again in over 40 years.
35:57He spoke with investigators
35:58when they asked him to
35:59and that was
36:01as far as it went.
36:02The yacht,
36:02the splendor,
36:03also had its own
36:04share of history
36:05afterward.
36:06It changed hands
36:07in 1986
36:08but the man who bought it
36:09ended up selling it
36:11years later
36:12claiming that the boat
36:13was haunted.
36:14And the most concerning
36:16part of this whole story
36:17might not be
36:19the lack of an answer
36:20but the speed
36:21with which it was closed
36:23the first time.
36:24In the end,
36:25the old prediction
36:27that her mother heard
36:28on the street
36:29before Natalie was born
36:31came true
36:32on both counts.
36:34The whole world
36:35fell in love with her
36:36and the dark waters
36:37took her away.
36:39That is all
36:40for today's case.
36:41I look forward
36:42to your comments
36:42down below
36:43and with that
36:44we'll meet again
36:45in the next story.
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