New coroner’s report bombshell says NATALIE WOOD was likely beaten aboard her yacht before she fell overboard and drowned.
CBS News reports that The Los Angeles County Coroner's office also found flaws in “every major” finding of the previous autopsy report that led medical examiners to rule her death an accident.
It’s a blistering new development in the ongoing mystery of what really happened to the beloved Hollywood star.
The new coroner's examination says bruises found on Natalie’s wrists, knees, and ankles were consistent with her being beaten – not, as the original 1981 report concluded, caused by her struggling to climb back aboard to yacht after falling over the side.
The Los Angeles County Coroner's report has not been made public yet, but CBS says that sources say the document will more than a few holes in the original autopsy reporting and the ruling that her death was accidental.
The ENQUIRER has previously reported that Thomas A. Noguchi, King Coroner, who was then an assistant ME differed with the then-offical coroner’s report in his book "Coroner".
Los Angeles County sheriff's detectives reopened their investigation in 2011 after the captain of the yacht, Dennis Davern, claimed that Wood's husband, Robert Wagner, was with her right up until the moment she went overboard.
Davern also charged that a fight had broken out between Wagner and actor Christopher Walken, who was also aboard to yacht.
Natalie’s death was ruled “accidental” at the time, but in 2012 after much media scrutiny the coroner changed the ruling to "undetermined."
Former LA Police Department deputy, CBS News senior correspondent John Miller said on CBS This Morning, “The million-dollar question is if investigators mailed it in.
“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) they concluded too fast,” Miller said. “I think that the overarching suggestions 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.”
Wagner, now 82, has admitted he had a fight with his wife on the night of November 29, 1981, but said Natalie was not in her cabin when he went to bed.
Wagner has said publicly he had nothing to do with her death, though he feels personally responsible.
Walken has consistently remained mum on the subject. The ENQUIRER previously reported in a world exclsuive that in private he call an old pal and opened up about a "sex secret" regarding the tragedy.
Sadly, Natalie was only 43 years old when she died.
DEVELOPING…
