Natalie Wood Death, New Coroner Report Questions Original Autopsy: Actress Obtained Injuries from Assault Before Drowning?

On November 29, 1981, Hollywood starlet Natalie Wood's lifeless body was found in the waters surrounding Santa Catalina Island in California - her death was originally ruled an accidental drowning after she fell overboard a yacht that was also occupied by her husband Robert Wagner, actor Christopher Walken, and the boat's captain Dennis Davern. Although Wood's body was found battered and bruised, the original autopsy report insists no foul play was involved in the "Miracle on 34th Street" star's unfortunate death. Now, a new report released by the Los Angeles County coroner's office states that the 43-year-old actress may have been assaulted before falling into the water and drowning. According to recent reports, the new examination of the Wood case found flaws in "every major" finding of the original autopsy report that led medical examiners to rule her death an accident. From accidental to undetermined, some findings now suggest that Wood's death may have been a result of attempted murder.

According to the new autopsy report that was completed in June by Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran and finally released on Monday, January 14, 2013:

"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."

The report does not change the status of Wood's investigation (which still remains open). According to Chief Sathyavagiswaran, Wagner is not considered a suspect in Wood's death.

Following the original 1981 investigation, Wood's death was ruled an accidental drowning by L.A. County coroner Thomas Noguchi... apparently an inebriated Wood fell overboard and sustained injuries when she unsuccessfully attempted to climb aboard the boat's dinghy.

The case was reopened in November 2011 when Captain Davern revealed to NBC News that he lied to police during the initial investigation. He stated that a fight between Wood and Wagner may have resulted in the starlet's death. After nine more months of further investigation, Wood's death certificate was changed from "accidental drowning" to "drowning and other undetermined factors"... the amended document states that the circumstances surrounding how Wood ended up in water are still "not clearly established."

Wagner (now 82) later admitted that he did have a fight with his wife the night of her death, but insists that he was not involved with her drowning.But according to Davern, "I believe Robert Wagner was with her right up until the moment she was in the water" ("Goodbye Natalie, Goodbye Splendor," co-authored by Marti Rulli). 

CBS News senior correspondent John Miller (a former Los Angeles Police Department deputy commissioner), said on "CBS This Morning" -

"[The conclusion in the report could be] very significant... It shows that the coroner is now going down the same path as the sheriff's homicide investigators, which is they have real questions about the circumstances of Natalie Wood's death or that it should have ever been labeled an accident based on the medical evidence... Now, the sheriff's working with the evidence of the investigation, and so far those haven't come together, but I think what you're going to see is more impetus for the sheriff's homicide investigation to go forward.

...When you take the circumstances as we've now come to learn them, Natalie Wood was, you know, in her night gown in bed. She supposedly goes out to re-tie this dinghy. She can't swim. She's afraid of the dark. She's afraid of the water. It sounds very unlikely she would have done that, especially if the captain, the skipper, was there and awake, and she could have told him do that...

Was this a thing where you had a big Hollywood star there, people who wanted to avoid bad publicity, and you didn't have a smoking gun murder, and they just, you know, gave it a once-over. But I think the signal we're going to get when this report is released later today (is) that they concluded too fast... I think that the overarching suggestion from the observations made in the supplemental are going to be that she was already unconscious in some likelihood when she went into the water, which ... certainly raises the possibility she had some help getting there and when you're unconscious, we call that suspicious."