UK Daily Mail / Caroline Graham

Witness on another boat said she could hear a woman struggling in the water

Ship's captain says death is 'linked to an argument' she had with actor husband Robert Wagner

Ms Wood's sister claims Natalie hated water as she believed she would meet her death by drowning

Autopsy revealed two dozen bruises on her body

Police may use new DNA technology in a new investigation into the death

Hollywood star Natalie Wood  was screaming for help as she drowned, according to a witness whose account has never been disclosed.

Retired stockbroker Marilyn Wayne has told The Mail on Sunday she tried to report the star’s ‘last desperate cries for help’ but was ignored.

Los Angeles police last week said ‘substantial new evidence’ has led them to reopen their investigation into the death 30 years ago this week.

The West Side Story actress’s drowning off the coast of California was ruled accidental at the time. Now a police source has described Wood’s husband, Hart-To-Hart star Robert Wagner, now 81, as ‘a person of interest’ in the case.

Wagner – who was on his yacht Splendour with his wife and her alleged lover, Oscar-winner Christopher Walken, on the fateful night – has always maintained Wood, 43, accidentally slipped and drowned as she drunkenly tried to tie up a dinghy against the boat. 

Wayne, 68, believes new statements from her and Dennis Davern, skipper of the Splendour, had triggered the latest police probe.

She said: ‘I have been waiting for years for them to take my account seriously but they would never listen.’

Wayne was on a nearby boat with a boyfriend called John on the night of November 28, 1981.

In a sworn statement submitted to the LA Sheriff’s department, Wayne said: ‘My cabin window was open. A woman’s voice, crying for help, awakened John and awakened me, “Help me, someone please help me, I’m drowning”, we heard repeatedly.’

Wayne said John turned on their yacht’s beam light but they couldn’t see anything. Wayne claims she called the harbour patrol officer ‘but no one answered’ and the local sheriff’s office, who told her a helicopter would be sent. But it did not come.

She also claims to have heard a man’s slurred voice from the direction of the Splendour saying: ‘Oh, hold on, we’re coming to get you.’

‘Not long after that the cries for help subsided,’ she recalled.

It was only when Wayne gave an account of her story to a U.S. TV crew for a programme scheduled to air next week, that she was asked to give a statement to police.

Wayne’s account matches that of Davern who says he was ‘coerced’ by Wagner’s lawyer into backing Wagner’s story of an accidental drowning after the death.

Davern’s police statement describes a night of heavy drinking that ended in a furious row between Wagner and Wood after Walken had retired to bed.

Wood's sister has claimed the actress was so scared of water that she would never have tried to get into a dinghy voluntarily before she drowned.

The coroner's ruling, based on accounts from the actress's husband Robert Wagner, outlined how she had fallen into the sea after attempting to secure the small boat, but that finding should not be believed, Lana Wood said.

Wood had developed a deep-rooted fear of water ever since her mother warned her as a child that she would meet her death by drowning in 'dark water', Lana Wood told TMZ.

She said: 'It gave Natalie a great fear. She hated the water, she wouldn't even go into her own pool at home.'

Coroner's officials at the time wrote that Ms Wood was 'possibly attempting to board the dinghy and had fallen into the water, striking her face.'

Lana Wood, also an actress best known for her part in Diamonds Are Forever, had never believed that her sister would have tried to sail herself at night, even after drinking for several hours.

The 65-year-old also claimed that the actress's husband left her to drown on the night of her tragic death.

In an emotional interview Lana Wood said that when Natalie was in the water, Wagner, who she calls RJ, had forbidden the captain from helping her and said: 'Leave her there, teach her a lesson'.

Speaking to TMZ, she claimed Dennis Davern, captain of the Splendour yacht from which Ms Wood fell and drowned in 1981, told her what Wagner had said. 

Lana told TMZ: 'He (Dennis) said that everyone was quite drunk and that a fight broke out and that Natalie was in the water and he and RJ did nothing to pull her out.

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'He said, and this is a direct quote from what Dennis told me: 'Leave her there, teach her a lesson'.'

In her interview she also claimed that the captain told her Wagner called his attorney before he alerted the Coastguard to the incident.

The revelations come as the police confirmed today that they will reopen the investigation into the death and said they may use new DNA technology after receiving 'credible and substantial information'.

They said, until they find evidence to say otherwise, Natalie Wood's death will still be ruled as an accidental drowning.

The sheriff said at this point her actor-husband Wagner is not a suspect.

One of the key witnesses in the reopening of the investigation is Mr Davern, who police confirmed they would interview.

Mr Davern has blamed Ms Wood's husband for the death,  claiming that - at the behest of Wagner - they did not do enough to find Ms Wood, after he advised against calling coastguards for four hours.

When asked if he thought Wagner was responsible for Ms Wood's death, he said: 'Yes, I would say so.'

Lana said she was not interested in seeing anyone punished but just wanted the 'truth'.

'Natalie was a wonderful person. She deserves the truth and she deserves to rest,' she told TMZ.  

Detectives are said to be interviewing Lana to find out if her sister's relationship with her husband was volatile.

The former captain spoke extensively to Marti Rulli, author of the book Goodbye Natalie, Goodbye Splendour, published in 2009 while she was writing it.

He denies trying to do anything other than see justice done by coming forward after 30 years.

He told NBC: 'I'm not really the investigator here, and I'm far away from even thinking about profiting over a 30-year anniversary. I've known this information for many, many years and my book has been out for two years. I'm not in it for any kind of profit, I'm in it for the justice of the whole situation.'

Speaking to CNN today he told them that though he never saw Wagner push Ms Wood or be in any way violent towards her, he still holds him responsible for her death.

Witnesses said they heard a woman scream around the time Ms Wood disappeared but he said he did not hear any scream but only 'a lot of yelling, a lot of moving about'.

Mr Davern did say that he was on the bridge of the boat and had music on loud so he could drown out the noise of their arguments.

Co-author of the book Ms Rulli said she believes the actresses death was inadequately investigated at the time, saying: 'The case was never really investigated in 1981, and yes, I am relieved they are going to give the case the attention it has always deserved.

'I am confident it is in good hands at this time. This has been a long process, and I have worked my way through the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department, and with a new generation of detectives in the department they are taking it seriously.'

Speaking on CNN,  she said: 'There are many, many things that should be examined, but mainly the four-hour wait to call for the Coast Guard.'

She said Ms Wood was missing from 11.05pm, but a ship-to-shore call wasn't placed until 1.30am and the Coast Guard wasn't called until 3.30am.

'This unacceptable delay in reporting a person missing from a yacht was never officially examined,' she wrote in the dossier.

Natalie Wood was wearing a red down jacket when authorities discovered her body 30 years ago ... and her wardrobe could prove she floated alive in dark water for hours while Robert Wagner allegedly stalled rescue efforts.

While writing the book, Ms Rulli performed a forensic test on down coats similar to the one Ms Wood was wearing when she drowned which prove they act like a life jacket in the water.

She said: 'It will not sink but instead remains floating.'

This finding completely contradicts the opinion of the coroner at the time - who insisted the jacket would have been too much for her to cope with and weighed her down in the ocean.

This additional information has prompted homicide detectives to re-open their investigation into her death.

According to police reports at the time, the body of the West Side Story star - one of the most glamorous actresses of her generation - was found  wearing a long nightgown, socks, and a down jacket and was pulled from the water in a cove on Catalina Island about a mile away from the yacht.

An autopsy report revealed two dozen bruises on her body, including a facial abrasion on her left cheek, and bruises on her arms.

Ms Wood's drowning sparked tabloid speculation that foul play was involved, but Mr Wagner and Ms Wood's sister Lana have always dismissed such a suggestion.

But the Los Angeles Times has reported that detectives were prompted to look at the case again after comments made by Mr Davern.

Mr Davern has said he believes Ms Wood's death is directly connected to an argument she had earlier in the evening with Wagner, during which he smashed a wine bottle.

It is claimed the fight was triggered over Wagner's belief that Walken wanted to sleep with his wife.

Asked why he has taken so long to come forward with the details, he said: 'Why now is because I've been trying to tell information about this for many, many years, but there wasn't really anyone listening until now.

'I've been trying to get somebody to listen for a long time and now somebody is listening and they're going to carry on with this investigation.

'I'm not saying anything different. All the information that I've revealed in the past, it's all in that book, and now it's just up to the investigators to do an investigation.'

He was also pressed on why he lied about it when interviewed by police the first time around. He claims: 'At that time my life was just totally crazy, and I don't think it was a time when I was even able to think straight.'

Last year, Mr Davern asked investigators, along with Ms Wood's sister, to re-open the case.

The issue was revisited when Mr Davern was recently interviewed for a collaboration between the magazine Vanity Fair and the television series 48 Hours Mystery that focuses on Ms Wood's death.

The interviews followed his detailed account of the evening in a book co-authored by Marti Rulli entitled, Goodbye Natalie, Goodbye Splendour, which was published in September, 2009.

In the book they say before Natalie disappeared from the boat, she was drinking and taking Quaaludes, a sedative, with her husband, Robert Wagner and actor Christopher Walken.

According to the book, Wagner became enraged when he saw Wood and Walken speaking, and smashed a wine bottle, yelling at Walken: 'What do you want to do, f**k my wife? Is that what you want?'

At that point, Walken returned to his cabin and Natalie and Robert went to their state room. According to the captain, he heard a loud argument between the couple and thumping sounds, and eventually silence.

A short time later, the Captain went to the deck and was told by Wagner: 'Natalie is missing.' The book claims Wagner refused to let him call the Coast Guard.

Reports also suggest Ms Rulli has been in recent contact with the LA County sheriff's office about re-opening the case.

It comes after Ms Wood's sister told CNN last year she believes an argument between her sister and Mr Wagner preceded the drowning. But she ruled out foul play.

She wrote in a biography on her sister: 'What happened is that Natalie drank too much that night.'

Mr Wagner wrote in a 2009 autobiography, Pieces Of My Heart that he blamed himself for his wife's death.

At the time, her death was ruled an accident and it was determined she had been drinking that night.

The Los Angeles County Coroner's office wrote that Wood was 'possibly attempting to board the dinghy and had fallen into the water, striking her face'.

A dinghy that had been attached to the couple's yacht Splendour was found in a Catalina cove.

Detectives plan to hold a news conference today and anyone with information about the case is being asked to contact sheriff's officials or an anonymous tip line.

Ms Wood, who was born Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko to Russian immigrant parents in San Francisco, appeared as a child in such films as the Christmas classic Miracle On 34th Street and The Ghost And Mrs. Muir.

A three-time Oscar nominee famous for roles in classics such as West Side Story and Rebel Without A Cause, she was twice married to Wagner.

The couple first wed in 1957 before divorcing six years later. They remarried in 1972.

Questions over the circumstances surrounding Ms Wood's untimely death have lingered for 30 years, and family members have previously asked for authorities to re-examine the original findings.

A spokesman for Wagner, said the family trusts the sheriff's department will take appropriate action but has not been contacted about the case being re-opened.

Los Angeles County sheriff's officials said in a written statement: 'Recently sheriff's homicide investigators were contacted by persons who stated they had additional information about the Natalie Wood Wagner drowning.

'Due to the additional information, sheriff's homicide bureau has decided to take another look at the case,' the statement said.

A sheriff's spokesman declined to elaborate on the additional information pending a news conference scheduled for today at 2pm EST.

Mr Wagner's spokesman Alan Nierob wrote in a statement: 'Although no one in the Wagner family has heard from the LA County Sheriff's department about this matter, they fully support the efforts of the LA County Sheriff's Department.

Phone and email messages to Mr Walken's publicist were not immediately returned. Attempts to contact Mr Davern were unsuccessful.