Natalie Wood Death Report Released With Changes
The coroner released the Natalie Wood death report with some amendments to the original report. Wood was reported drowned under undetermined circumstances more than 30 years ago.
Los Angeles County coroner’s officials state in an 10-page addendum to Wood’s autopsy report that some of the bruises may have occurred before she went into the water and drowned, but that could not be definitively determined.
The report reveals new details about a renewed investigative interest in Wood’s case, but it does not answer many of lingering questions about the actress’ death and a Sheriff’s Department spokesman said it has not changed the ongoing status of the case.
Officials reviewed Wood’s case after sheriff’s investigators in late 2011 renewed their inquiry into her November 1981 drowning. Wood’s death certificate was amended last year to change her cause of death from drowning to “drowning and other undetermined factors” and the report released Monday details the reasons for the alteration.
The certificate was also amended to state that the circumstances of how the Oscar-nominated actress ended up in the water were “not clearly established.”
Wood was nominated for three Academy Awards during her lifetime. Her death stunned the world and has remained one of Hollywood’s most enduring mysteries. The original detective on the case, Wagner, Walken have all said they considered her death an accident.