After Natalie Wood’s sister Lana Wood said she believes Robert Wagner killed the actress, the yacht captain from the night she died said he thinks the same.
“You could hear things being thrown around the state room,” Dennis Davern said on “Dr. Phil” on Friday. “I think the argument got out of control, she was knocked unconscious by a physical fight from Robert Wagner and put in the water.”
“Do you believe Robert Wagner murdered Natalie Wood?” Dr. Phil McGraw asked.
Davern agreed with Lana Wood’s account that there was a big fight between Wagner and Wood and when Davern went to check in on the couple, Wagner allegedly told Davern to leave.
“When everything got quiet I thought, ‘something just isn’t right,'” Davern continued, saying that he then found Wagner at the back of the boat. “And he looked at me and he said, ‘Natalie’s missing.'”
Wood was married to Wagner from 1972 until her death on Nov. 29, 1981, off Catalina Island in California. The then 43-year-old actress was sailing with Wagner, as well as Christopher Walken and Davern, but was found floating in the water wearing a red down jacket and a flannel nightgown.
After a two-week investigation, the death was ruled as an accident, but the case was reopened in 2011. In 2012, the Los Angeles Coroner’s Office amended the death certificate, changing the cause of death to “drowning and other undetermined factors.” The autopsy report indicates that there were several fresh bruises on Wood’s body when she was found.
In February, Wagner was named a person of interest in the case. In 2011, he was named “not a suspect” by the sheriff’s department. Investigators said Wagner has refused to speak with them since the case was reopened. There has long been speculation surrounding the death of the “West Side Story” star. At first, Wagner, Walken and Davern told detectives that she took a dinghy and went to shore. Over time, investigators said, Wagner and Davern’s accounts shifted.
A spokesperson for Wagner has not yet responded to TheWrap’s request for comment.
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9 Infamous Hollywood Murders, From Black Dahlia to Sharon Tate (Photos)
TheWrap takes a look back at some of the grisliest killings in L.A. history
1947: The brutal murder of Elizabeth Short, a 22-year-old woman nicknamed "Black Dahlia," remains one of Hollywood's most grisly unsolved crimes and has since sparked numerous TV, film and literary adaptations.
Santa Barbara Police Department
1969: Charles Manson, leader of the so-called "Manson Family," ordered the deaths of actress Sharon Tate; writer Wojciech Frykowski and his partner, the coffee bean heiress Abigail Folger; and celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring and several friends at the Beverly Hills home of director Roman Polanski.
ABC News
Red Lion/20th Century Fox
1976: Sal Mineo, the star of "Rebel Without a Cause," was stabbed to death near the Sunset Strip. Pizza deliveryman Lionel Ray Williams was later arrested and convicted of the murder.
ABC Network
1978: The "Hogan's Heroes" star Bob Crane was found bludgeoned to death in his Arizona apartment. John Henry Carpenter was arrested and charged with the murder in 1992.
CBS
1994: Former NFL star O.J. Simpson's ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman were found stabbed to death at her Brentwood home. The former football star-turned-actor was arrested and charged with the double homicide but found not guilty in a notorious trial.
YouTube
1998: "Saturday Night Live" star Phil Hartman was shot and killed in his sleep in his Encino home by his wife, Brynn Omdahl, who then turned the gun on herself.
NBC
2003: Phil Spector, a music producer famed for his so-called Wall of Sound, was convicted in 2009 of the 2003 shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson in his own home.
BBC Arena
Investigation Discovery
2010: The celebrated publicist Ronni Chasen was killed in an apparent robbery while driving home from the premiere of the Cher movie "Burlesque." The man who is believed by police to have killed her has since committed suicide.
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2012: Nearly a year after his disappearance, former Fox executive Gavin Smith's car was found at a Simi Valley storage facility that was connected to John Creech, and Smith’s remains were discovered in a shallow grave in the Angeles National Forest. Creech was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to 11 years in prison.
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TheWrap takes a look back at some of the grisliest killings in L.A. history
TheWrap takes a look back at some of the grisliest killings in L.A. history