New report on Natalie Wood's death

Some of the bruises found on actress Natalie Wood’s body may have occurred before she drowned in the waters off Southern California more than 30 years ago.

A newly released coroner’s report yesterday shed more light on one of Hollywood’s most mysterious deaths.

Officials published a 10-page addition to Wood’s 1981 autopsy that cites unexplained bruises and scratches on her face and arms as significant factors which led to her death certificate being changed last year from drowning to “drowning and other undetermined factors.”

Officials were careful about their conclusions because they lacked several pieces of evidence for their review.

Bruises on Wood’s arms, a scratch on her neck and superficial abrasions to her face may have occurred before she ended up in the waters off Catalina Island in November 1981, but coroner’s officials wrote they could not definitely determine when the injuries happened.

The findings have not altered a sheriff’s department investigation into Wood’s death, which a spokesman described as ongoing.

Wood, 43, was on a yacht with her actor-husband Robert Wagner, co-star Christopher Walken and the boat captain before somehow ending up in the water.

The initial autopsy report said it was likely the bruises happened when Wood drowned.

Several of the original coroner’s investigators who worked on the case were re-interviewed, and officials attempted to test some items taken during the inquiry into Wood’s death and an autopsy, but they could not be located.

“The location of the bruises, the multiplicity of the bruises, lack of head trauma, or facial bruising support bruising having occurred prior to entry in the water,” the amended report states.

“Since there are unanswered questions and limited additional evidence available for evaluation, it is opined by this medical examiner that the manner of death should be left as undetermined,” Dr Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran wrote in the report completed in June.

Officials also considered that Wood was not wearing a life jacket, and had no history of suicide attempts and did not leave a note, as reasons to amend its report and the death certificate.

Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said the agency has known about the findings in the newly released autopsy report for several months and it does not change the status of the investigation, which remains open. He said Wagner is not considered a suspect in Wood’s death.

Wood, famed for roles in such films as West Side Story and Rebel Without A Cause, was nominated for three Academy Awards during her lifetime.

Her death stunned the world and has remained one of Hollywood’s most enduring mysteries. The original detective on the case, as well as Wagner and Walken, have all said they considered her death an accident.

Conflicting versions of what happened on the yacht have contributed to the mystery of how the actress died. Wood, Wagner and Walken had all been drinking heavily in the hours before she disappeared.

The renewed inquiry came after the boat’s captain, Dennis Davern, claimed on US TV that he heard Wagner and Wood arguing the night of her disappearance and believed Wagner was to blame for her death.

Wagner wrote in 2008 that he and Walken argued that night.

He said Walken went to bed and he stayed up for a while, but when he went to bed, he noticed that his wife and a dinghy that had been attached to the yacht were missing.