Robert Wagner Named 'Person of Interest' in Natalie Wood Death

A decades-old mystery surrounding the death of a Hollywood legend could finally be on its way to a resolution: Investigators have named actor Robert Wagner a "person of interest" in connection with the 1981 drowning death of his wife, actress Natalie Wood.

That revelation was recently shared with CBS newsmagazine "48 Hours," with investigators offering up new information about the notorious case, which was officially reopened in 2011. While Wagner had always been a suspect in the court of public opinion, this is the first time that law enforcement officials have publicly declared that they're taking a closer look at the actor (though they have stopped short of calling him an official suspect just yet).

"As we've investigated the case over the last six years, I think he's more of a person of interest now," said John Corina, a lieutenant in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, while speaking with "48 Hours." "I mean, we know now that he was the last person to be with Natalie before she disappeared."

The bizarre story began in In November 1981, when Wood's body was discovered floating off the coast of Catalina Island in California, near the yacht on which she was staying with Wagner, friend and fellow actor Christopher Walken, and the boat's captain, Dennis Davern. At the time, Wagner and the others told investigators that Wood had taken off the night before in a dinghy to head ashore; her death was eventually ruled a drowning.

But several clues puzzled investigators, including the fact that Wood was known to be deathly afraid of the water, and it seemed unlikely that she would have gone off alone in the dark. And her body was covered in bruises, leading one investigator to declare that she "looked like a victim of an assault." In 2012, Wood's death certificate was amended to list her cause of death as "drowning and other undetermined factors."

"I haven't seen [Wagner] tell the details that match all the other witnesses in this case," Corina told "48 Hours." "I think he's constantly changed his story a little bit. And his version of events just don't add up."

More details are expected to be revealed in a new "48 Hours" special, "Natalie Wood: Death in Dark Water," set to air on CBS on February 3.

[via: CBS News]

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