Beloved actress, Natalie Wood, mysteriously died over 40 years ago. Dr. Oz is joined by Natlie's sister, Lana, who shares never-before-heard information from her own investigation. Learn new details about that evening and why Lana still feels Robert Wagner is responsible for her sister's death.
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00:00 A ticking clock on justice.
00:01 Just days away from the 40th anniversary
00:04 of Natalie Wood's mysterious death,
00:06 time is running out to confirm what really happened
00:08 to the beloved actress on this luxury yacht.
00:11 We know that the night of November 28, 1981
00:14 started with Natalie Wood and three others on this boat.
00:17 Her husband, Robert Wagner,
00:19 her friend and co-star, Christopher Walken,
00:21 and the ship's captain, Dennis DeVern.
00:23 But by midnight, only three men remained.
00:26 Today, Natalie's sister Lana is here
00:28 with never before heard information
00:30 from her own investigation.
00:31 It's a hunt for the truth
00:33 that we've been part of for years.
00:35 She was one of the biggest movie stars of all time.
00:38 But somehow, 40 years later,
00:40 Natalie Wood's death remains a mystery.
00:43 The thrice Oscar nominated screen legend
00:46 and charming actor, Robert Wagner,
00:48 seemed to have a fairy tale life.
00:50 But there were rumors of turbulence behind the facade,
00:53 although they were married twice.
00:55 Natalie's sister, Lana, addressed their surprising
00:58 reconciliation on our show.
01:00 She said, "Well, because sometimes the devil you know
01:04 "is better than the devil you don't."
01:07 Natalie's last night alive was spent with her husband
01:10 on their yacht, Splendor,
01:11 off the coast of California's Catalina Island,
01:14 along with Captain Dennis DeVern
01:16 and Natalie's then co-star, Christopher Walken.
01:20 Due to an extreme fear of deep water,
01:22 Natalie did not swim.
01:24 But somehow, she went overboard into the Pacific Ocean
01:27 in the dead of night.
01:29 Unbelievably, the Coast Guard wasn't called
01:31 until hours after she was discovered missing.
01:34 Her body was found just before 8 a.m. on November 29th,
01:39 floating face down in the water a mile from the yacht.
01:42 The 43-year-old's last moments alive
01:45 fueled rampant speculation,
01:47 and her autopsy reported substantial bruising on her body.
01:50 But still, her death was ruled an accidental drowning.
01:54 No charges were ever filed.
01:56 The case was reopened 30 years later,
02:00 in November of 2011, after anonymous sources
02:04 contacted authorities with new information.
02:07 Soon after, DeVern, the captain,
02:09 admitted to hearing an explosive fight
02:11 between Natalie and Wagner late that night,
02:14 which he recounted on the show.
02:16 I could hear you arguing,
02:18 'cause their stateroom was right below the bridge deck.
02:21 You could hear things being thrown about in the cabin.
02:24 I mean, it was a full-on physical
02:27 fight that was going on down there.
02:31 In 2012, Natalie's cause of death was reclassified
02:35 as drowning and other undetermined factors.
02:39 Then, in 2018, authorities declared her death suspicious.
02:44 Robert Wagner was named a person of interest
02:46 and has reportedly refused to talk to investigators
02:49 since the case was reopened.
02:51 Now, four decades after Natalie's untimely death,
02:55 will the truth finally be revealed?
02:57 Our show's senior investigative correspondent,
03:00 Marosky Avakampa, was here with the latest.
03:03 So I wanna start with the reclassification
03:04 of Natalie's death from an accidental drowning
03:07 to drowning and other undetermined factors.
03:09 So Mara, what led authorities to make this meaningful shift
03:13 decades after the event?
03:14 - Well, initially, investigators couldn't confirm
03:16 whether the bruises on her body had been sustained
03:18 before she drowned or after,
03:21 were these injuries that she sustained in the water.
03:23 But later, they determined that some of the bruises
03:26 may have come from before the drowning,
03:29 and they said that she, quote,
03:31 "looked like a victim of an assault."
03:34 - So let's take a closer look at what the autopsy reveals,
03:36 'cause these bruises are very important.
03:38 They paint a different picture from an accidental drowning.
03:41 So first off, Natalie sustained bruising
03:43 all over her body, right?
03:44 Numerous bruises to the back of her legs
03:47 and to the front of her legs, as well as her arms.
03:50 This is important to her cheek and to her forehead.
03:53 My team counted at least 11 bruises on her back
03:57 and 28 bruises on the front of her body.
04:00 So Mara, in 2018, Robert Wagner was named
04:04 a person of interest in Natalie's death.
04:06 Again, it's a seismic shift, why?
04:09 - Well, first of all, he was the last person with her
04:11 before she died, so that's significant.
04:13 But investigators also say that his story
04:16 has been inconsistent and that also he has refused
04:19 to speak with them since he has been declared
04:21 a person of interest and his account does not match
04:24 that of other witnesses.
04:26 So there are a number of factors here.
04:27 - Let's go on over and take a close look
04:29 at Natalie and Robert Wagner's boat.
04:31 It's called Splendor, and we built a replica here.
04:33 The boat's captain, Dennis DeVern, told me
04:35 that the night of the partying, right,
04:37 he was having a good time, it all took a turn
04:39 when Robert Wagner, to orient you all here.
04:42 So I've got Natalie right over here,
04:45 and this is Robert Wagner over here,
04:48 and Christopher Walken, who's our guest, is here.
04:51 Now, Robert Wagner gets very upset
04:53 because he thinks that Christopher Walken
04:55 and Natalie are flirting.
04:56 The captain, by the way, Dennis DeVern,
04:57 who I've had on the show, is over here
05:00 watching the whole thing happen.
05:01 So when Wagner gets upset, he slams a wine bottle
05:06 down on the table, this table, breaks it.
05:09 Something, by the way, that he confirms
05:10 with his own memoir.
05:12 Dennis then says to the captain that Walken left
05:16 immediately and went to his room in the front of the boat,
05:19 and that's where he spent the evening,
05:21 lying in his bed, sleeping, wondering what the heck happened.
05:25 Dennis, meanwhile, left, and he goes upstairs
05:28 to the deck, which is, again, above their bedroom.
05:31 And at the same time, Natalie and Robert Wagner
05:35 go to their cabin, and they start having
05:37 a heated disagreement.
05:38 Natalie's upset with her husband for doing
05:41 what had occurred in the main stateroom,
05:43 breaking the wine bottle, getting mad
05:45 at Christopher Walken.
05:47 And Dennis says that he came back down
05:49 because he heard this loud arguing, impossible violence.
05:52 And when he gets to the door, Robert Wagner comes over
05:54 and says, "Don't come in.
05:55 "I know we got it covered."
05:57 Turns back around, the captain retreats,
05:59 goes back and does his job.
06:01 And one theory that has been raised
06:02 is that Robert beat Natalie Wood until she was unconscious,
06:06 and then dragged her by her legs.
06:09 That would cause the bruises on her face and body.
06:12 Remember, there were more bruises on the front
06:13 of her body than the back.
06:14 And then dumped her overboard.
06:16 And she was unable to swim, and eventually
06:19 was found dead, face down, later on.
06:21 Now, over the years, we've covered this case.
06:23 We've attempted to get a comment from Robert Wagner
06:25 or his attorney many times, including for this episode.
06:27 We have not heard anything back at the time of this taping.
06:30 Now, Mara, what do we know about what Wagner
06:32 says happened that night?
06:34 - Well, he has recently granted a rare interview
06:36 to his stepdaughter, Natalie's daughter,
06:38 for a 2020 documentary.
06:40 And in that interview, he says that during the fight
06:44 between himself and Walken, Natalie went down.
06:47 She went to bed because she wanted to get away
06:48 from the argument-- - By herself.
06:50 - By herself.
06:51 And that when he went to check on her later,
06:53 she was gone, and the dinghy was also gone.
06:57 So in his 2008 memoir, he offered some explanations,
07:01 some potential explanations for that.
07:03 He says he believes there are two possibilities,
07:06 that A, either Natalie wanted to get away
07:08 from the arguing so bad that she put herself
07:10 in the dinghy to try to escape,
07:12 or B, she noticed that the dinghy was loose,
07:15 and so she was trying to tie it up.
07:17 She accidentally fell overboard,
07:19 and that is what led to the drowning.
07:21 - There is, however, one piece of medical evidence
07:23 that could potentially dispute the idea
07:24 that Natalie was awake when she fell in the water,
07:27 and it has to do with her bladder.
07:28 It was full.
07:30 Listen carefully, it's important.
07:31 The average bladder can hold about 300 to 400 cc,
07:33 a pint of fluid in there.
07:36 Natalie's bladder contained 300 cc of urine
07:40 during her autopsy.
07:40 It was full.
07:41 Here's the idea.
07:42 If Natalie was truly, because she was fearful of drowning,
07:45 had fallen in the water, her fight or flight response
07:47 would have kicked in, and she would have peed, right?
07:50 You've heard that concept.
07:51 If people are scared, they urinate.
07:52 They'll defecate as well.
07:53 It would have emptied her bladder.
07:54 But if she was unconscious when she fell into the water,
07:57 her brain wouldn't have known to kick in
07:59 in his fight or flight response,
08:01 and her bladder would therefore be full.
08:03 That's the concept.
08:04 So with the 40th anniversary of Natalie's death approaching,
08:08 what's the latest from the authorities?
08:09 It's an open investigation.
08:10 - Yeah, you know, we reached out
08:11 to the L.A. County Sheriff's Department,
08:13 and they told us that this is an open investigation,
08:15 that they are not going to stop until they have answers.
08:18 And they told us no, he has not spoken to them
08:21 since he's been named a person of interest,
08:23 and they would very much like to speak with him
08:25 because he was the last person who saw Natalie alive.
08:28 - He's not spoken to them.
08:29 - He has not spoken to them.
08:30 - Thanks as always, Mara.
08:31 It's important to note that Robert Wagner
08:32 has only been named a person of interest.
08:34 He has never been charged in Natalie Wood's death.
08:36 Coming up, could Natalie Wood's fingernails
08:39 have revealed the truth of what really happened?
08:41 Her sister, Lana, is here revealing
08:42 what her investigation uncovered.
08:44 - Robert all of a sudden picked up
08:46 that bottle of wine like this.
08:49 He smashed it on the table.
08:52 He said, "What are you trying to do, F my wife?"
08:54 (sighs)
08:56 I'll tell you what.
08:58 The feeling, it was just amazing.
09:01 It was just incredible what the feeling went through me.
09:05 It's like, oh my God, I can't believe this is happening.
09:08 - That was Splendor boat captain, Dennis DeVern,
09:10 revealing the explosive moment
09:11 Natalie Wood's final night alive took a devastating turn.
09:16 What happened in the hours after her husband,
09:18 Robert Wagner, smashed a wine bottle in front of Dennis,
09:20 Natalie, and her co-star, Christopher Walken,
09:22 has haunted and perplexed Natalie's family
09:24 and fans for years.
09:26 Natalie's sister, Lana Woods,
09:28 is the author of "Little Sister,
09:30 "My Investigation into the Mysterious Death of Natalie Wood"
09:33 and she joins us now.
09:35 So I wanna dive into your investigation.
09:36 - Yes.
09:37 - And Lana's been doing great work looking at
09:38 something very subtle that was missing
09:40 from the autopsy report.
09:42 There was no mention of her fingernails,
09:44 what was under them.
09:45 And conventionally folks, you know, in autopsies,
09:47 the victim's fingernails, scrapings,
09:49 are gonna be collected to see what's underneath them
09:50 at the time of death.
09:51 How crucial would that have been
09:53 to the investigation, do you believe?
09:55 - It may have appeared to be crucial now.
10:00 And if there was tissue,
10:04 her husband is on the yacht with her.
10:07 If there were scrapings from the dinghy,
10:10 she's been on the dinghy.
10:12 - So as part of the investigation of Lana's work,
10:15 she met an ear witness, that's what you call them,
10:17 an ear witness, who says she heard something crucial
10:20 the night that Natalie Wood died.
10:22 Marilyn Wayne is her name.
10:23 What did she tell you?
10:24 - Marilyn and I sat down to have lunch together.
10:29 She wanted to talk to me and she said that
10:32 she was on her boat with her boyfriend and son
10:37 and that she heard a woman's voice screaming,
10:40 "Help me, help me," to the point where she
10:43 went up on deck and woke up her boyfriend
10:47 and they were very, 'cause she wanted to get in the water
10:52 and see what could be done
10:54 because she was that panicky
10:55 and she said the woman sounded that upset.
10:58 But she was encouraged not to as it was a stormy night.
11:03 But she heard screaming and then she heard taunting.
11:07 She said she heard a man's voice saying,
11:10 "Yeah, we're coming to get you."
11:11 Things like that that were very upsetting, obviously.
11:16 - That would be concerning.
11:17 Did this witness ever come forward and speak to the police?
11:19 Did they ever express concern about their own safety
11:23 if they spoke out on Natalie's death?
11:25 - Marilyn was threatened by a note.
11:29 Someone left a note in her message box at work.
11:34 She's a stockbroker.
11:36 And they said, "If you value your life,
11:40 "you won't talk about anything."
11:43 I mean, that's frightening to me.
11:45 That's unbelievable.
11:48 - It's frightening and it's, you know,
11:50 Dennis, who I'll come back to in a second,
11:51 also expressed some concern.
11:52 So according to Dennis's account of that evening,
11:55 just before 11 p.m.,
11:56 Robert told him that Natalie was missing.
11:58 This timeline's important.
11:59 The authorities say about two and a half hours later
12:02 was the first call to the local harbormaster.
12:05 That's at 1.30 now.
12:06 So two and a half hours after the initial,
12:09 Robert Wagner's belief that she was missing,
12:11 someone was called.
12:12 And then another two hours go by
12:14 when the Coast Guard's alerted.
12:15 So it's not until 3.30 a.m.
12:17 that Natalie's remains were finally discovered at 7.45 a.m.
12:21 Do you think your sister would have survived
12:24 if she had been found earlier?
12:26 - Oh, Roger Smith, who was Baywatch,
12:30 who removed her body from the water,
12:33 said that it was possible.
12:35 But I don't know because the detective said
12:39 because of the bladder issue,
12:42 she would have been unconscious
12:46 or had already died when she hit the water.
12:50 - So Natalie and Robert Wagner married,
12:52 then they got divorced, everyone knows,
12:53 and then 10 years later, they got married a second time.
12:56 I'm always curious when that happens.
12:59 It's not rare.
13:00 Why did they get divorced the first time?
13:02 - Natalie found that RJ had cheated on her,
13:08 but in a fashion that Natalie did write about
13:12 in the memoir that she was doing,
13:16 completely destroyed her belief in marriage
13:20 and what was the fairy tale.
13:22 She was devastated.
13:25 She found him with a man.
13:27 - Found Robert Wagner with a man?
13:31 - Yes.
13:32 - How was your sister feeling about the relationship?
13:38 'Cause she obviously forgave him enough to marry him again.
13:41 - Right.
13:42 - So Lana's niece, Natasha,
13:43 has stood by her stepfather, Robert,
13:45 and even made a documentary last year
13:47 about her mother's life and death
13:48 that included what Robert says happened that night.
13:51 It's a rare interview.
13:52 It was done to promote Natasha's documentary.
13:55 Robert Wagner said, "She knows that I would never
13:57 "have done anything to hurt her mother."
14:00 Did you ever witness Robert Wagner hurting your sister?
14:04 - No, I did not, ever.
14:07 What is told, I mean, I hate,
14:14 I feel terrible bringing this up,
14:16 but every time there is a case similar to this,
14:20 which you know happens continually,
14:22 what does everybody say?
14:27 He would never have done that.
14:29 He wasn't like that.
14:32 He was gentle.
14:32 He was kind.
14:33 You know what?
14:34 People cross the line sometimes, not purposefully,
14:40 which is why I've always said,
14:42 people have said to me, "Do you think it was premeditated?"
14:45 Absolutely not.
14:46 But it happened.
14:50 A line was crossed.
14:51 - There's a report from a neighbor in 1960
14:55 that they had had a scuffle.
14:56 - Yes.
14:58 Evidently, Natalie ran to a neighbor's home late at night,
15:04 pounded on the door and said,
15:07 "Help me, he's going to kill me,"
15:10 and was let into the house.
15:13 And the young boy who was about 12 at the time was awake
15:18 and had come downstairs to see what was going on.
15:22 And he said that Natalie's sweater was stained red
15:26 and they didn't know if it was blood or if it was wine,
15:30 but she didn't say she was hurt.
15:32 There was no other, she didn't mention that anymore.
15:37 But yeah, then the dad went out front
15:40 and saw Robert Wagner standing in the yard
15:43 and he said, "Your wife is in the house and she's fine."
15:47 And that RJ just turned around
15:48 and walked back into the house.
15:50 - My goodness, so it was tumultuous,
15:53 at least at some point. - Yes.
15:54 - All right, up next, more shocking revelations
15:56 from Lana's investigation into her sister,
15:58 Natalie Woods' life and death, right after this.
16:01 - I also start to fear, feel fearful for my own life.
16:07 Because I'm thinking,
16:09 to me this whole thing didn't make sense.
16:11 And I was thinking to myself,
16:13 I wonder if he might be thinking,
16:16 maybe I should get rid of him.
16:20 - That was boat captain Dennis DeBern claiming
16:22 that he feared Natalie Woods' husband,
16:23 Robert Wagner, may kill him.
16:25 After it was discovered, she was missing from the boat.
16:28 Robert Wagner has always denied he had anything to do
16:30 with Natalie's death, but he remains a person of interest.
16:34 And Natalie's younger sister,
16:35 little sister author Lana Wood is here with me today.
16:38 So Lana, as you dug more into Natalie's death,
16:40 did you ever worry that you could be hurt?
16:43 - No, not really, I didn't.
16:45 I really do feel that RJ tried to hurt me by excluding me,
16:52 by cutting me out of the family,
16:54 by doing a great many things that he did,
16:57 but not that he would physically come after me, no.
17:00 - When was the last time you spoke to Robert Wagner?
17:04 - Oh dear, when my mom died.
17:06 - You called?
17:10 - I called, I was in the hospital,
17:13 she had passed and I ran out into the hall
17:19 and grabbed the phone and called RJ, why I don't know.
17:23 But you've also got to remember that I have known him
17:26 since I was eight years old until present.
17:31 So that's a long time to have someone in your family,
17:34 out of your family, in your family,
17:37 and not have some sort of a connection with them.
17:40 So I called him and I told him that she had gone
17:44 and I just cried a lot, hung up.
17:49 And he then, when I was already at home,
17:52 called me back by himself without Willie May,
17:57 who is the housekeeper or anybody else
18:01 beginning the phone call,
18:02 and said he just wanted to say that he was sorry.
18:07 And that was it.
18:09 But the phone call meant so much to me.
18:13 And yet this is someone that I consider responsible
18:17 for Natalie's death.
18:18 - If you could see him again,
18:21 ask him just one more question before it's too late.
18:23 He's 91 years old.
18:25 What would you ask him?
18:27 - Absolutely nothing,
18:28 because I don't believe him or trust him anymore.
18:32 He has, in his own words, in his books,
18:37 given three different stories about what has happened.
18:41 And I really feel that he is not capable
18:46 of simply being truthful and to the point.
18:49 - Do you think the truth of what happened to your sister
18:53 will eventually come to light?
18:55 - I hope so, just for her sake.
18:57 What angers me the most are stories
19:01 that are untrue about Natalie,
19:03 about things about her personality
19:07 or anything she's done that are completely untrue.
19:12 And I appreciate Natasha being loyal
19:16 and standing up for her dad,
19:18 but all she knows of her mother is what RJ has told her.
19:22 - We did reach out to Robert Wagner for comment
19:26 on this episode, we have not heard back at this time.
19:28 But in 2013, two years after the case was reopened,
19:31 Wagner's attorney said in part,
19:32 "Mr. Wagner has fully cooperated over the last 30 years
19:35 in the investigation of the accidental drowning
19:37 of his wife in 1981.
19:39 Mr. Wagner has been interviewed on multiple occasions
19:41 by the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department
19:43 and answered every single question asked of him
19:45 by detectives during those interviews."
19:48 - It's not true.
19:49 - It's not true?
19:50 - No.
19:51 He may have spoken to them, the initial interview,
19:55 the day that Natalie's body was found,
19:58 but he has not spoken to them since
20:01 and has refused to speak to them.
20:04 The detectives went all the way to his new house in Aspen,
20:09 waited, waited outside the gates, had to get permission,
20:16 had to be driven to his house and stood outside his door
20:20 and he would not come to the door
20:22 and he would not speak to them.
20:24 He has never spoken to the detectives
20:27 that have been on the case now.
20:28 - Thank you for joining.
20:31 - Thank you.
20:32 - Thanks for sharing your insights
20:33 and I pray you reach closure on this.
20:36 - I don't think it'll ever happen,
20:38 but I want it to happen for Natalie.
20:40 - Lana's new book, "Little Sister" is out today.
20:43 Be sure to check out a copy.
20:45 It's wonderfully written.
20:46 Thank you for watching.
20:47 Don't forget to subscribe and turn on notifications
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