Robert Wagner Suspect in Natalie Wood's Death? Declines Interview
Robert Wagner declined to be interviewed on Thursday by detectives who re-opened an investigation into the death of his Hollywood star wife Natalie Wood.
The 82-year-old actor used his lawyer, Blair Berk, to explain that he has done his part to help police in the investigation.
"Mr. Wagner has fully cooperated over the last 30 years in the investigation of the accidental drowning of his wife in 1981," Berk said in a statement reported by The Huffington Post. "Mr. Wagner has been interviewed on multiple occasions by the Los Angeles sheriff's department and answered every single question asked of him by detectives during those interviews."
Woods died on Nov. 29, 1981, having drowned while she was with her actor-husband Wagner and Christopher Walken on a yacht near California's Catalina Island. Conflicting stories about what took place that day has only contributed to the Hollywood mystery.
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department spokesperson John Corina said Wagner is the only person on the boat at the time Wood drowned who has not spoken to detectives assigned to the new examination.
"We reached out through his attorney and got rebuffed," Corina said, according to SkyNews. "We went to his home and he refused to talk us and we sent him a letter, so I say it is fair to say he has declined to be interviewed, repeatedly," he told the Los Angeles Times.
Detectives re-opened the case in 2011, which has gone 30-years unsolved, but they are hopeful that newly released information on the actress' death will help bring everything to a close.
Investigators discovered that coroner's officials altered Wood's death certificate last year based on unanswered questions about bruises found on her upper body, according to ABC News.
Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran stated the following in a report released in June: "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. 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."
