Christopher Walken spoke to detectives about a reopened case

• The details surrounding Natalie Wood’s 1981 suicide have been the subject of intense speculation for a long time.
• The actress was sailing with Christopher Walken, her husband, when she disappeared and drowned.
• Natalie’s sister Lana Wood told Insider in an interview that she does not hold Walken accountable.

Natalie Wood’s drowning death in 1981 has been a persistent mystery in Hollywood.

Lana Wood (75), Natalie’s younger sibling, dives back into the mystery 40 years later after the disaster off Santa Catalina Island. “Little Sister: My Investigation into the Mysterious Death of Natalie Wood.”

But in a book that frequently accuses and alleges — Natalie’s husband Robert Wagner takes the brunt of the blame, though the authorities who initially investigated Natalie’s death and the famed celebrity coroner who classified her death as “accidental drowning,” face Lana’s fury as well — there is one familiar face whom Lana says she does not hold responsible for the tragedy: Christopher Walken.

Insider heard from Lana that Natalie’s award-winning actor had continued to be helpful despite being kept private in the ongoing investigation.

A mysterious drowning death

Natalie, Oscar-nominated Natalie, starred in Hollywood hits such as “West Side Story”And “Rebel Without a Cause,”Her body was discovered floating in the Atlantic off Catalina Island, Thanksgiving weekend 1981 at age 43. Robert had been on vacation with her. [RJ]Wagner, her “Brainstorm”Walken was Walken’s friend, co-star, and captain of the ship, Dennis Davern.

Thomas Noguchi, Los Angeles County coroner, ruled her death accidental drowning. He noted that her blood alcohol content was 0.14 percent, suggesting that the actress might have fallen into the freezing water while she tried to tie up her vessel’s dingy.

Lana was skeptical because Natalie’s long-standing fear of being beaten up made her doubt the proposed explanation. “dark waters,”She claimed that her sister would never have tried to board the vessel’s dinghy by herself in the middle of the night.

Dennis Davern was the yacht’s skipper. He contacted Lana more than a decade later after Natalie’s passing. He said that the holiday was stressful from the beginning and recalled Wagner complaining about Natalie inviting Walken to the trip. Lana was also informed by the captain that he heard Wagner fighting with Natalie at the back of her boat, before he learned that Natalie had disappeared.

Lana was prompted to investigate the incident by Davern’s admissions. She also had access to the original police reports. Lana says she was struck with a variety of elements. Lana reports that Wagner and Walken were not interviewed by authorities for more than 10 minutes immediately after Natalie’s funeral. Also, witness statements that seemed to have been dismissed in the initial investigation.

A crowdsourced petition was launched in 2009 by Davern’s revelations and Lana’s amateur research. It called for a fresh investigation into Natalie’s murder. Two years later, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department was established. Natalie’s case has been reopenedCite “additional information.”

In 2018, detectives Her death was deemed her fault. “suspicious,”Later in the year, authorities became officially named Wagner a “person of interest”Natalie’s suicide.

Decades without any action

Even though he has already been nominated for an Oscar in 1978 for his performance in “The Deer Hunter,”Walken was only 38 years old when she went with Natalie and Wagner to their Thanksgiving holiday 1981. Walken, now 78 has had many successes in the decades following her death. Publicly speaking is rareAbout that night.

Walken recounted Natalie’s story five years later People: “I don’t know what happened. She slipped and fell in the water. I was in bed then. It was a terrible thing.”

“Look, we’re in a conversation I won’t have. It’s a fucking bore,”He concluded.

He has only spoken out about her death a few times. In 1997, he told Playboy Magazine that Natalie went to bed before the men. The Hollywood Reporter.

“The people who are convinced that there was something more to it than what came out in the investigation will never be satisfied with the truth. Because the truth is, there is nothing more to it,”Walken stated that the outlet.

Natalie’s daughter Natasha Gregson Wagner produced a 2020 HBO Documentary about Natalie. Robert Wagner admitted that he and Walken had fought over Natalie’s career the night she disappeared.

Despite Walken’s long-standing silence, Lana stated to Insider she had spoken to the detectives involved in Natalie’s reopened investigation.

“He did tell them everything he witnessed and he knows,”She spoke. “However, he made them promise that they would never reveal anything that he has said.”

Lana, a close associate of the LASD detectives involved in the case, stated that Walken’s disclosures were not disclosed by the investigators to honor their agreement.

“All they told me was that they did speak to him,”She spoke. “[The detective] said he told them everything.”

Insider’s request for confirmation or comment from Walken regarding Lana’s allegations about the actor was not immediately responded to by a spokesperson with Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Insider was previously informed by a detective from the sheriff’s office that Natalie’s murder is still suspicious due to the unanswered questions.

“Her husband at the time, Robert Wagner, is the last known person to be with Ms. Woods [sic] prior to her death, and Investigators would like to interview him,”Detective Ralph Hernandez made the following statement. “The goal of the investigation is to confirm the truth of how she ended up in the water, thus providing the manner of her death.”

He said that the case would remain open until it was resolved.

Insider did not receive a response from Wagner to our request for comment. The 91-year old has denied wrongdoing in Natalie’s murder.

Lana’s memoir, released last week by Lana, delve into the details. Hollywood sisters’ adolescence, as well as the aftermath of Natalie’s death, as the younger sister attempts to set the record straight on Natalie’s life and death, and keep her memory alive — “not simply as a movie star, but as a person who had a full life.”