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LOS ANGELES (AP) — A newly released report shows coroner's officials amended Natalie Wood's death certificate based on unanswered questions about bruises
on her upper body but were lacking several pieces of evidence and could
only conclude that she drowned under undetermined circumstances more
than 30 years ago.
Los Angeles County coroner's officials state in an 10-page addendum to Wood's autopsy report
that some of the bruises may have occurred before she went into the
water and drowned, but that could not be definitively determined.
The report reveals new details
about a renewed investigative interest in Wood's case, but it does not
answer many of lingering questions about the actress' death and a
Sheriff's Department spokesman said it has not changed the ongoing
status of the case.
Officials reviewed Wood's case
after sheriff's investigators in late 2011 renewed their inquiry into
her November 1981 drowning. Wood's death certificate was amended last
year to change her cause of death from drowning to "drowning and other
undetermined factors" and the report released Monday details the reasons
for the alteration.
The certificate was also amended
to state that the circumstances of how the Oscar-nominated actress ended
up in the water were "not clearly established."
Wood was on a yacht off Catalina Island with husband Robert Wagner and co-star Christopher Walken
on Thanksgiving weekend in 1981 before somehow ending up in the water. A
dinghy that was attached to the boat was found along the island's
shoreline, but investigators could not locate it to review it last year.
Several of the original coroner's
investigators who worked on the case were re-interviewed, and officials
attempted to test some items taken during the investigation into Wood's
death and an autopsy, but they could not be located.
Wood's autopsy found bruises on
both of her arms, a small scratch on her neck and abrasions described as
superficial on her forehead, left brow and cheek.
"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," the
report states. "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," Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran
wrote in the report completed in June.
Officials also considered that
Wood wasn't wearing a life jacket and had no history of suicide and
didn't leave a note in amending its report and Wood's death certificate.
The report was released Monday after sheriff's officials released a security hold.
Sheriff's spokesman Steve
Whitmore said the agency has known about the findings in the newly
released autopsy report for several months and it does not change the
status of the investigation, which remains open. He said Wagner is not
considered a suspect in Wood's death.
Wood was nominated for three
Academy Awards during her lifetime. Her death stunned the world and has
remained one of Hollywood's most enduring mysteries. The original
detective on the case, Wagner, Walken have all said they considered her
death an accident.
Conflicting versions of what
happened on the yacht shared by Wood, her actor-husband Robert Wagner
and their friend, actor Christopher Walken, have contributed to the
mystery of how the actress died.
The newly released report states there are conflicting statements about
when the boat's occupants discovered Wood was missing. The report
estimates her time of death was around midnight, and she was reported
missing at 1:30 a.m.
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