1 week Ago By Julianna Salinas
Hollywood starlet Natalie Wood died in 1981 at the age of 43 under mysterious circumstances. Her untimely death has been shrouded in mystery and speculation for decades. The West Side Story star drowned when she fell from her husband Robert Wagner's yacht The Splendour near Catalina Island.
According to Anne Soon Choi's new biography , L.A. Coroner: Thomas Noguchi and Death in Hollywood, the actress may have survived if she had removed the parka she was wearing when she fell into the water.
Dr. Noguchi believed the jacket became waterlogged, weighing her down and preventing her from climbing onto a nearby dinghy. Dr.
Noguchi, who performed the autopsies of John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe, also performed Natalie's autopsy. He recalled that her clothing was still wet more than 24 hours after she was found dead.
The star was wearing a flannel nightgown, wool socks, and a red parka. The 'Coroner to the Stars' noted that the saturated garment weighed 'between thirty to forty pounds' and concluded that 'her sodden parka had caused her to drown,' according to Choi's new biography. The Oscar-nominated actress had a blood alcohol concentration of .
12, which led Dr. Noguchi to believe that alcohol may have 'played a significant role in her death.' Natalie's death has remained a Hollywood mystery, with rumors that her husband Robert had something to do with her demise.
During the autopsy, Dr. Noguchi found a large bruise on her right arm, several bruises on her legs, and an abrasion on her left cheek. The main theory is that an argument ensued between Robert and actor Christopher Walken, who was also on the yacht with the couple.
Witnesses reported hearing screaming the night she disappeared, with speculation of a love triangle between the three actors that went awry. Christopher, now 81, cooperated with investigators but has remained tight-lipped about that night for decades. Dr.
Noguchi believed Natalie 'determined to get away' and that perhaps she was trying to escape her husband when she died. Natalie's sister Lana maintains that the star would have never entered the water on her own as she was deathly afraid of water and did not know how to swim. In 2012, Los Angeles County Chief Coroner Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran changed her cause of death from accidental drowning to "drowning and other undetermined factors.
" L.A. Coroner: Thomas Noguchi and Death in Hollywood will be available on February 12.
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