Natalie Wood - the Case Reopened?

Most people who remember the drowning of actress Natalie Wood, ("Splendor in the Grass" and "Rebel without a Cause,") also remember thinking there was foul play involved. However, nothing was ever proven and the case was closed.

I remember watching "Hart to Hart" as a kid and thinking, "She was married to him?" By him I mean Robert Wagner. To me he was not worthy of her and just seemed swarmy. I did not find him attractive enough, or special enough to be married to such a beauty. But I was a kid. In 1981, when she drowned, I was 13 years old. On November 29th, it will have been 30 years since Natalie Wood died.

Robert Wagner always claimed that she fell off of a dingy she was rowing, and since she did not know how to swim, she drowned. Actor Christopher Walken was also on that boat. At the time he was Wood's co-star in the movie "Brainstorm." Wagner also claimed that he and Walken had had an argument, and when he decided to turn in that night, Wood was not in bed where he thought she would be.

The Captain of the yacht tells a different story, however skeptics wonder if it's because it's the 30th anniversary, and maybe he is trying to profit on it. The Captain said he lied to police but now he claims that the argument was between Wagner and Wood, not Wagner and Walker. Now Los Angeles Investigators have re-opened the case.

Lana Wood, Natalie's sister, says she never believed Robert Wagner's story. She said her sister was deathly afraid of any body of water, including her own pool, so it seems unlikely that she would be rowing a dinghy late at night on the ocean. Wood's sister says she hopes someone is punished, no matter that it's been 30 years.

This has always been a Hollywood mystery. Three Hollywood actors on a yacht together, drinking and arguing. What really happened? Who really had a fight? And what was it really about? Maybe now we'll find out.