Natalie Wood Investigation Re-Opened; Mysterious Drowning Revisited 30 Years Later

Natalie Wood is trending 30 years after the actress’s drowning off the coast of California was ruled an accident.

Citing new unspecified information, the L.A. County Sheriff’s Office has reopened the investigation of Wood’s death, which remains one of Hollywood’s most enduring mysteries.

The actress drowned on Nov. 29, 1981 after a night of drinking on a yacht with her husband Robert Wagner and actor Christopher Walken. They were near Catalina Island when an argument between Wagner and Walken broke out, spurring Wood to attempt to flee in the boat’s dinghy, despite not being able to swim. Her body was found in the water about a mile from the yacht.

The yacht’s captain, Dennis Davern, wrote a detailed account of the night’s events in Goodbye Natalie, Goodbye Splendour, published in 2009, which may have prompted the investigation’s revival.

Wood is best known for her Oscar-nominated roles in Splendor in the Grass and Rebel Without a Cause. She was 43 at the time of her death.