Just a few months ago the Natalie Wood case was reopened and a slew of controversy followed. To make things even more complicated, there’s new information being leaked, this time citing assault as a possible augmenter or cause to the end of her life. Just this Monday the coronary report was revised, which cites bruises and various other signs of conflict, to have been apparent on her body. Since 2011 while the case is being reinvestigated I think the most telling thing of the situation is the official change by the L.A. County Coroner from accidental, to ‘drowning and other undetermined factors.’ Whatever this new information brings to light, pales in comparison to the death of one of Hollywood’s brightest and most under appreciated actresses. Originally acting to support her family from a very young age, the child actress smoothly transitioned to starlet, of the method process, and into an adult that was in the midst of a huge career upswing at the time of her untimely death at age 43.
Through three decades of fevered tabloid speculation and whispers of a deeper story, the official account never changed: Natalie Wood drowned accidentally. The 43-year-old star of “West Side Story,” who couldn’t swim, had been drinking the night before she was found floating face-down in frigid waters off Santa Catalina Island.
When the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department reopened the case in November 2011, around the 30th anniversary of her death, skeptics questioned the timing and doubted whether there was anything new to be learned.
Instead of quieting speculation, however, the investigation has raised fresh — and probably unanswerable — questions about one of Hollywood’s most enduring puzzles. READ MORE