Ever since the news of Natalie Wood's death first came out to the public in 1981, conspiracy theories have surrounded the odd circumstances of her demise: at the time, her death was declared an accident after she drowned in a yacht where she was taking a holiday with then-husband Robert Wagner and then co-star and supposed lover Christopher Walken.
Though ruled an accidental death at the time, the case of Natalie Wood's death was reopened in 2012, when the captain of the ship, "Splendour" (named after the 1961 Elia Kazan film "Splendor in the Grass," which got Wood nominated for an Academy Award) confessed to having lied to the police the first time he was interviewed for the actress' death.
According to Celebrity Dirty Laundry, the reopened case of Natalie Wood's death has become the subject of news once more, after a leading forensics expert stated that having the body of the "Rebel Without a Cause" actress exhumed should be the next step in the investigation, after there have been new claims that the actress' husband, Robert Wagner, could have been associated with Wood's death.
Ever since Natalie Wood's death in 1981, her sister, former Bond girl Lana Wood, has accused Wagner of killing Natalie in a bout of jealousy, as he suspected she was having an affair with her "Brainstorm" co-star at the time, Oscar-winning actor Christopher Walken. Wagner has denied the claims for years, but has obviously become estranged from his former sister-in-law.
As The Enquirer reports, when the Natalie Wood case was reopened a few years ago, her death's status changed from "accidental drowning" to "drowning and other undetermined factors," something that has caught the public's attention following one of the most controversial celebrity deaths in recent times.
Radar Online reports that the new statements about Natalie Wood's death come only a short time after the release of a new book about the night when the star of "West Side Story" lost her life, where author Kathleen Hewtson unequivocally accuses Wagner of killing his wife.