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Case file s1865 · Hollywood and TV · 1981
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1981
Natalie Wood: Natalie Wood Allan Warren
Natalie Wood. Allan warren. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
29 November 1981
Place
Catalina Island, California · United States
Field
film actor · Film and television on the timeline
Legal tradition
US common law (California) · Common law
Historical event
Reopening of the Natalie Wood death investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, 2011 to 2018
Religion
Natalie Wood: Eastern Orthodox (recorded as Eastern Orthodox Church on Wikidata)
Hollywood and TVBodies, bones and burialsPostwarNorth AmericaUnited States

Natalie Wood drowned off Santa Catalina Island in 1981, and in 2012 the Los Angeles coroner changed her death certificate to "drowning and other undetermined factors"

Natalie Wood, 43, was last seen on the yacht Splendour, anchored off Catalina Island, with her husband Robert Wagner, actor Christopher Walken and the boat's captain, Dennis Davern. Her body was found in the water the next morning. The Los Angeles County coroner ruled the death an accidental drowning. In November 2011 the Sheriff's Department reopened the case after Davern said publicly that he had not told all he knew in 1981. In 2012 the coroner's office amended the death certificate, replacing "accidental drowning" with "drowning and other undetermined factors," and said bruises on her body could not be explained. In February 2018 sheriff's investigators publicly called Wagner a "person of interest." A sheriff's spokesperson said that is not the same as a suspect. Wagner has denied any responsibility. No charge has been filed, and no court has made a finding on her death. As of the sources below, the case remains open and the manner of death is undetermined. Wagner is living; everything above about him is from dated press reports and an official statement, not from a court record.

What the law took from it

A death certificate can be amended decades later, so the cause of death on the first record is not final.

Sources
  1. The Hollywood ReporterPress
  2. NBC NewsPress
  3. globalnews.caPress
  4. gulfnews.comPress
  5. Wikipedia (English)Encyclopedia

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Natalie Wood drowned off Santa Catalina Island in 1981, and in 2012 the Los Angeles coroner changed her death certificate to "drowning and other undetermined factors",” story s1865, https://www.celebrity.estate/natalie-wood-1981, updated 30 October 2026.

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