Summary
Episode 166 covers the mysterious 1981 death of actress Natalie Wood, who drowned off Catalina Island during a yacht trip with her husband Robert Wagner, co-star Christopher Walken, and captain Dennis DeVern. The official cause was ruled accidental drowning, but decades later conflicting accounts from the captain and witnesses raised questions about whether Robert Wagner may have been involved or prevented rescue efforts.
Insights
- High-profile cases with extensive documentation can remain unsolved for decades due to conflicting witness accounts and lack of physical evidence
- Delayed witness testimony (30 years later) significantly complicates investigations and raises credibility questions, especially when witnesses later monetize their accounts
- Family divisions on case interpretation (sister vs. daughters) demonstrate how personal relationships and emotional investment can shape beliefs about guilt or innocence
- Refusal to cooperate with police investigations, while legally defensible, can fuel public suspicion and conspiracy theories regardless of actual guilt
- Supernatural elements and prophecies, while unverifiable, become embedded in case narratives and influence public perception of events
Trends
True crime podcast popularity driving renewed interest in cold cases and historical investigationsWitness recantations and new testimony decades after incidents becoming more common as media platforms incentivize disclosureCelebrity death cases remaining unsolved despite high resources, suggesting systemic investigative limitationsFamily members monetizing case details through book deals and media appearances, creating credibility conflictsPolice reclassification of causes of death from 'accidental' to 'undetermined' reflecting investigative uncertainty
Topics
Celebrity death investigationsWitness testimony reliabilityCold case reopeningsPolice investigation proceduresAccidental drowning vs. homicide determinationSpousal jealousy and domestic conflictYacht safety and maritime incidentsMedia influence on criminal investigationsFamily dynamics in high-profile casesDelayed witness disclosureFinancial incentives in true crime narrativesCircumstantial evidence evaluationProphecy and superstition in case narrativesCooperation with law enforcementCelebrity privacy vs. public interest
People
Natalie Wood
Subject of the episode; died in 1981 under mysterious circumstances during a yacht trip off Catalina Island
Robert Wagner
Present on the yacht when Natalie died; named person of interest; later cleared by police in 2022
Christopher Walken
Co-star on yacht trip; accused by Robert of affair with Natalie; refused to discuss the incident publicly
Dennis DeVern
Witness on the Splendor; recanted original statement in 2011 claiming Robert prevented rescue efforts
Peyton Moreland
Host of the Into The Dark podcast presenting the Natalie Wood case analysis
Maria
Pushed Natalie into acting career; told her about fortune teller's prophecy regarding dark water
Lana
Publicly implied Natalie was murdered by Robert Wagner; contradicts daughters' defense of him
Natasha
Believes mother's death was accidental; defends Robert Wagner as good father and loving husband
Courtney
Believes mother's death was accidental; publicly defended Robert Wagner against murder allegations
Quotes
"Money shouldn't be a barrier to healthy weight. Three months in and I have smaller jeans and a bigger wallet."
Mark (Mochi Health customer)•Opening
"Beware dark water"
Fortune teller (to Natalie Wood's mother)•Early narrative
"You're not being very fair to Natalie"
Christopher Walken•Restaurant argument
"Help me, someone please help me, I'm drowning"
Witness account (woman's voice heard from nearby yacht)•Night of incident
"How exactly did this happen?"
Peyton Moreland•Closing reflection
Full Transcript
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I'm your host, Peyton Moreland. I'm so glad you are here and listening or watching the show. Now, as always, before we get into the meat of the episode, I start off with my 10 seconds. I'm just not feeling very good. I actually just got out of the bath, but I am looking at Daisy and she is just... I cracked the door and she's just sitting in the sun having a ball. It looks like. But yeah, Garrett's bagel shop is getting ready to open. We've just been running around like crazy with that. Nothing much going on other than work, really. And then yeah, just not feeling very well. But thank you so much for being here and listening and watching and let's get into today's episode. Now, today I am covering a story that you may have already heard of. You might even know a lot about it. And that's because I'm discussing a celebrity who died in very mysterious circumstances in the early 1980s. Her death was a massive news story. And even people who don't usually follow true crime know about it. But there's a reason I'm actually telling you about all of this, even though it is such a well-known case. And that's because 45 years have passed. And there are still a lot of rumors, allegations, and theories about this death. Which is why it's worth keeping the spotlight on it. Because many people believe justice still hasn't been served. And that is why today I am covering the mysterious death of Natalie Wood. And the story begins well before she died. And honestly, even before she was born. See, Natalie's mother was a woman named Maria. And when Maria was a young girl, she had her fortune told. And the psychic told Maria she would have at least two children. And her second child would be, quote, a great beauty known throughout the world. But then the medium added that the child should, quote, beware dark water. Now she didn't offer any specifics, but it sounded like something bad would happen to this child in or near water. Now Maria wanted to make the prophecy a reality, at least the part about her child being beautiful and famous. And sure enough, when her second daughter Natalie was born, Maria pushed her to become a star. Natalie grew up in Hollywood. Maria booked auditions and tried to kick start her career as an actress. She actually made Natalie change her name. Natalie Wood was not her birth name. But her agents and her mother Maria all thought the new moniker was memorable and good for her career. And Maria also sometimes told Natalie upsetting traumatic things to make her cry on camera. That way she would have an edge when she was going after dramatic roles. And Maria forced Natalie to put in long hours rehearsing, memorizing her lines and working constantly. This was hard. It was upsetting for Natalie, but it worked. Because she ended up landing major parts in films like Miracle on 34th Street and West Side Story. And Natalie was rapidly becoming a massively famous star. But by the time she was just 16, Natalie decided she'd had enough to be clear, she still loved acting and wanted to keep working in Hollywood. However, she wanted to make her own choices about the roles that she would take and how she would get them. She wanted freedom and independence. So Natalie set boundaries with her mom and then decided to manage her own career. And right away, she began to get more adult roles and she was kind of able to rebrand herself as sexy. She also began to embrace her sensuality in real life. Now, you see this happened a lot with people who were forced to grow up too quickly, especially in Hollywood. Natalie made some bad decisions. She got involved with much older men while she was underage and cheated on multiple partners. However, by 1956, which is when she turned 18, Natalie was kind of ready to settle down. And by this time, she was in a serious relationship with another actor. named Robert Wagner. So when Robert the actor proposed to Natalie, she said yes, and they got married the next year in 1957. But their relationship had problems almost from the start. Natalie was still very young. She and Robert fought a lot. There were also rumors of infidelity. The gossip was kind of inconsistent, though. Some people thought Natalie was cheating on Robert while others said he was cheating on her. The point was they were clearly not in a good place and their relationship was public with both of them being actors. So by 1962, after five years of marriage, Robert and Natalie filed for divorce. And afterward, Natalie took another chance on love. And this time she married a film producer. They had one child together, a daughter named Natasha. But it was kind of like history was repeating itself because once again, Natalie realized she was trapped in an unhappy relationship. So she went through her second divorce in 1971 after just two years of marriage. And then in a shock to everyone, she got back together with her ex-husband Robert. Apparently they had both grown as people while they were apart. They were wiser and more mature now. And they thought they had what it took to now make things work. So in 1972, Natalie gets married for a third time. And her third husband is also her ex-husband, Robert Wagner. Now they went on to have a daughter together, Courtney. And by this time, Natalie was in her 30s with two daughters. She was older, she was more mature and ready to do things right when it came to her family. Except once again, Natalie and Robert's marriage wasn't perfect. They still had some very serious problems as a couple. Apparently they fought a lot about Natalie's career. She traveled for film shoots and she wasn't always home to support her husband and children, the way that Robert wanted her to be. And those problems just became worse when Natalie was cast in a movie called Brainstorm. Now her co-star was Christopher Walken, who you may know from Dear Hunter, Batman Returns, Severance. Now in Brainstorm, Natalie and Christopher were playing a married couple and their chemistry was off the charts. They just clicked and they really came across like two people who were genuinely in love. Now to be clear, everyone on set said Natalie and Christopher were very professional with each other. Neither of them did or said anything inappropriate, but it was pretty clear that they were vibing even when the cameras were off. And I mean, we see this today, didn't this just happen with Sidney Sweeney and Glenn Powell? So it should be no surprise that Natalie invited Christopher to join her and Robert for Thanksgiving in 1981. See, Robert, her husband, owned a yacht, which was called the Splendor. Now he enjoyed going on boating trips whenever he and Natalie had time off. So the plan was for them to spend the holiday weekend on Catalina Island, which is just off the shores of Los Angeles. Now it's a very popular vacation destination for people in Southern California. And Natalie asked Christopher if he wanted to come to Catalina with them. And he says yes. So in the final week of November, four people set sail on the Splendor. They were Robert, Natalie, the married couple, Christopher, very cutesy co-star, and the yacht's captain, a man named Dennis DeVern. Now for days, they docked just off the shores of the island. Most nights, they just slept on the yacht. And during the day, when they wanted to get to the land, they would take a tiny boat called a dinghy back and forth. Now the dinghy was a small inflatable craft. It was easier to steer and park than the yacht. So it was just easier to get close up to land. And it let them leave the Splendor anchored just off the coast while they were having fun on Catalina Island and enjoying the holiday. Except, as you might expect, this trip didn't really end up being all fun and relaxation. In fact, on Sunday, November 29th, things seemed to have taken a very dark turn. Honestly, guys, when we started the podcast, it seemed like we had to figure everything out on our own. Scripts, setup, filming schedule, logos. It's overwhelming and every day seemed to introduce a new decision that needed an answer. When you're starting off with something new, it seems like your to-do list keeps growing every day with new tasks. And that list can easily begin to overrun your life. Finding the right tool that not only helps you but simplifies everything can be such a game changer. And for millions of businesses out there, that tool is Shopify. Gert and I have been using Shopify for years with all of the different businesses we've ventured into. I honestly don't know how you have a business today without Shopify. They make everything so easy. 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Visit Progressive.com and see if you can enjoy a little cash back. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. National average 12-month savings of $946 by new customers surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2024 and May 2025. Potential savings will vary. So that evening, everyone decided to go to shore and have dinner together. And I mean everybody, even the captain was at the restaurant too. But he may have quickly regretted coming because this was a very tense meal. At one point, an argument breaks out and it's hard to say exactly who was fighting or what it was even about. All we know is several restaurant employees witnessed this fight, but they all give contradictory accounts of what was happening. We know at some point one of the men threw a glass against a wall and it shattered. Some people said Robert did it, others said it was Christopher. It's hard to say really. And from the sound of things, the reason they were angry was because Robert was jealous of Christopher, like, hello, one plus one equals two. He thought Christopher was just a little too close to his wife, Natalie, just like everyone in the press. Now on top of that, everyone was drinking a lot during this dinner, including Captain Dennis. So the four of them had had two entire bottles of wine, two more bottles of champagne, and multiple cocktails while they ate dinner. And by the time they were done eating and paying their bill, Robert, Natalie, Christopher, and Dennis were all incredibly drunk and fighting. And the good news was that they didn't have any plans to drive or to take the splendor anywhere that night. But still, the restaurant employees were worried the four wouldn't be able to steer the dinghy back to the yacht safely. Again, this is just like a very small blow up boat. Now remember, the splendor was parked in the open water pretty far from the island's shores. So everyone needed to take the tiny dinghy back and forth. And it seemed like a risky move given how drunk everyone was. So at 10 p.m., this party of four paid the bill and stumbled out of the restaurant. The manager, waiters, and chefs could only pray they would be able to steer the dinghy without tipping it over and falling into the water. But thankfully, the fears weren't necessary. All four safely made it back to the yacht. And then nobody heard from them again until very early the next morning at 3.30 a.m., so kind of more into the night. That is when Natalie's husband, Robert, called the Coast Guard from the Splendor's radio. And he explained that Natalie, his wife, wasn't in bed. He'd searched the entire yacht up and down, and there was no sign of her. So now Robert was worried Natalie might have fallen overboard and he had called the Coast Guard. Now right away, a Coast Guard team rushed to the harbor where the Splendor was docked. Rescue boats crisscrossed the shoreline looking for Natalie in the water. Again, it's dark. It's 3.30 a.m. And meanwhile, a search team was searching the yacht just in case Robert had missed something. Now they didn't find Natalie, but they did notice that the dinghy was missing. So obviously they're like, well, did you ever think that your wife Natalie just took the dinghy? Maybe she is back on the island. Maybe she took the dinghy herself to get there. This is a pretty good sign, right? It suggested that Natalie was still okay and almost a little weird that her husband had called. This is suggesting she took the dinghy and hadn't fallen into the ocean during the night. But this entire theory falls apart at 5.30 a.m. So two hours had passed since Robert's call. And that's when the Coast Guard actually found their dinghy drifting near the coast and it was empty. Natalie was not in it. And the dinghy's engines were turned off. So it's not like she had fallen off it while driving it around. Now a little over two more hours later at about 8 a.m. the Coast Guard actually finally finds Natalie too. But sadly, she was dead. They found her body floating, dressed in a nightgown with a warm coat over her pajamas. To all appearances, it looked like she drowned, except when they recover her body, they notice that she's covered in bruises. So right away, the police get involved and they speak to Robert, Christopher, and Dennis about what had happened on that yacht. And they all give very similar statements. They said they hadn't seen what had happened in Natalie, but they could describe the events from right before she had disappeared. See, everyone agreed that after they had left the restaurant and came back to the splendor, they weren't ready to go to bed yet. They said they wanted to keep the night going. Dennis, the captain, needed to take care of some chores. So he told everyone good night and then went to work on the yacht. But Christopher, Natalie, and Robert opened yet another bottle of wine, despite having the fight at the restaurant and they sat around drinking and chatting. Again, though, as you'll remember, things were tense at the restaurant. And despite deciding to keep the night going, that tension was still there. It's not like they really solved anything. So while they were all talking, Robert began making comments about Natalie's parenting style. He still didn't like that she was traveling and working away from home for long periods of time. He felt like she was being a bad mother and he let her know right here in front of Christopher. Now, Natalie tried to defend herself, but the argument became so loud that Dennis, the captain, could hear it from where he was working on a completely different part of the splendor. And he actually turned on music to drown out the three of them fighting. He didn't want to hear it. Now, in the meantime, Christopher spoke up to tell Robert, Hey, you're not being very fair to Natalie. And this is when Robert snapped and told Christopher to mind his own business, which is when Christopher says he realized he was not helping the situation. He wanted to have Natalie's back, but he realized he was only making Robert angrier by getting involved. So according to Christopher, he told Robert and Natalie to work it out amongst themselves. And then he went outside to find Dennis and just vent about the two of them fighting. Now, eventually Robert ends up joining Dennis and Christopher too. He says they hashed everything out and agreed to stop fighting. Basically, everyone realized they were being ridiculous and not thinking clearly. They were tired and drunk. So they all agreed together that it was time to just go to sleep and see if they felt better in the morning. So Robert headed back to his room. But according to him at this point, because remember he was with Christopher and Dennis, he heads to the room and doesn't find Natalie. She's not there. And then he got up and walked all around the splendor checking to see if she was getting fresh air, just grabbing a snack, except there was no sign of her. So that is when Robert went to tell the captain what had happened. Now by this time, Christopher was already asleep in his room. So Robert and Dennis decided not to wake him because they still weren't sure where Natalie was or if this is an emergency. So instead, Dennis got on the radio to call for help at about 1.30. But according to this statement, he gave police. Nobody picked up. So he and Robert were on their own. For two hours, they desperately searched the yacht and the waters around it. They found nothing. And then finally, at 3.30, Robert did manage to reach the Coast Guard. And then we all know what happened after that. So now that Natalie is dead and you guys are all caught up, I'm going to tell you about Robert's theory. Robert had a theory about how Natalie had died. He speculated that she must have been furious about their fight. And when he had left to talk to Dennis and Christopher, Natalie may have decided to leave the splendor and head to shore. That way she could be alone. So she had probably tried to lower the dinghy into the water so she could steer it to the island on her own. But Natalie was obviously not a very experienced boater. According to Robert's theory, she had lowered the dinghy into the ocean. And then when she tried to climb inside of it, she slipped and fell into the water. And she drowned before anyone else even realized what was going on. And the dinghy had drifted away to just be discovered by the Coast Guard the next morning. Except this story didn't make much sense. And the police had some pretty serious problems with it. First of all, there's the fact that Natalie died in her pajamas. She was a very image conscious professional actress. She would never go out in public in her pajamas. If she would wanted to take the dinghy to the island, she would have changed into an outfit first. And then there was the question of all of the bruises on Natalie's body. Except a coroner was actually able to kind of explain these away. The post mortem exam showed her injuries were consistent with a fall. In particular, there was a huge bump on her head. Apparently the autopsy showed it looked exactly like the kind of bump you would get if you hit your head against a yacht after falling off it. So the coroner said they thought they knew what had really happened to Natalie. This is the coroner's theory. Supposedly, Robert's original theory was right, according to them. Natalie must have been trying to leave the splendor on the dinghy. She had slipped and fallen into the ocean next to the small boat. And in the process, she had hit her head. Then she had tried to stay afloat for as long as she could. But remember what I said at the beginning of the episode? How a fortune teller once told Natalie's mother she should beware of dark water? Natalie's mom had told her about the prophecy when she was really young. And for her entire life afterward, Natalie had taken it seriously. She kind of avoided water. She never learned how to swim. So here she was now in cold water in late November wearing pajamas and a coat that were getting soaked and heavy. And apparently she had hit her head. On top of that, she still had some alcohol in her system and she had taken painkillers that night. Plus, she didn't know how to keep her head above the waves anyways. So tragically, Natalie only lasted a short while before the frigid water and exhaustion overwhelmed her and she sank beneath the waves. So now according to the corner, her official cause of death was an accidental drowning and this was a tragic mistake. Okay, case closed. Except people still wondered if this was the complete truth or if there was more to the story here because again, it didn't seem like Natalie would try to go to shore in her pajamas. Plus, if she was so scared of water that she'd never even learned to swim, would she really try to drive a dingy on her own? It just felt a little out of character for her. And on top of that, people wondered about the two hour gap between the time when Natalie apparently disappeared and when Robert finally got ahold of the Coast Guard. Sure, Captain Dennis claimed he had tried to get help earlier at 1.30am and then the call finally went through at 3.30am. But honestly, this was an emergency situation. He should have been calling the Coast Guard every few minutes until he reached someone. Does it really take two hours to search the yacht? Or if they were refusing to pick up, he could have called the other boats that were in the harbor. The Splendor was not the only yacht that was parked off the shore. There were lots of people Dennis could have contacted to ask for help. But it almost seemed like they hadn't even really been trying to look for her. Now, in spite of these issues, the police do close the case and it seemed like the truth might never come out. At least not until 2011. This is 30 years after Natalie's tragic death. That is when Dennis, Captain Dennis, came forward and admitted, after all these years, that he had lied to the police. Apparently, things had played out very differently that night than what he'd originally told them. And Dennis had given a false statement in order to protect Robert. I don't know about you, but I like keeping my money where I can see it. And unfortunately, traditional big wireless carriers also seem to like keeping my money too. 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New customer offer for first three months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra, see Mint Mobile for details. See, according to Dennis's new story in 2011, the fight between Robert and Natalie that night had been vicious because Robert wasn't only angry at Natalie for working outside the home. He also believed she was cheating on him with Christopher. Now Natalie and Christopher both denied it on this trip. And after Robert made his accusation, Christopher went straight to bed rather than give any credence to his wild allegations. Except Natalie and Robert stayed up and Dennis is now saying they were fighting so loudly that he couldn't help but overhear. He listened to the muffled shouts coming from inside their bedroom. And then they came out on the deck and continued the argument. Except then, according to Dennis, they both suddenly go silent as though something had happened to force them to be quiet. Something like Natalie slipping and falling into the water or maybe Robert pushing her. Now in fairness, Dennis hadn't actually seen what had happened. He didn't know for sure, but not long after that eerie silence settled in, Robert came to Dennis and told him Natalie was missing. And that was when Dennis had tried to call for help, only nobody answered. So his next thought was that if nobody could help them, he would find Natalie himself. He wanted to turn on some really bright search lights that were mounted on the splendor. That way, if Natalie was around the boat, they would be able to see her even though it was late at night and the ocean was dark. Except, according to Dennis, Robert ordered him to keep the lights off, said he didn't want to use them. Now Dennis immediately thought this was weird, but he was tired and tipsy. He wasn't thinking clearly. Plus, Robert was his boss and Dennis may have felt weird about standing up to him. So he agreed to leave the search lights off. He says two hours then passed and the whole time Dennis wondered if Robert had intentionally hurt or killed Natalie. He could hear them arguing one second and then it stopped the next. And finally at 3.30, Robert agreed to call the Coast Guard himself and report her disappearance. And then before the rescuers could arrive, he and Dennis allegedly agreed on what they would say just because they didn't want to look suspicious. They wanted to keep their story straight. And from there, things played out just like I've already told you. But if you believe Dennis's story, Robert was behaving pretty suspiciously that night. So Dennis's news story doesn't necessarily say, oh, I saw him kill her. But it does say that night was actually way more suspicious than I originally told people. According to the news story, he may have pushed her overboard or she could have fallen in on accident. But then Robert prevented Dennis from really rescuing her. Either way, it sounded like Robert was at least partially responsible for his wife's death or helped prevent her from being saved. At least if you believe Dennis's testimony. But I should acknowledge that some people thought he wasn't a very reliable source because when he went public with this new version of his story, I do have to tell you he made some money. He got paid for interviews with different tabloids. He signed a book deal. So some people thought maybe Dennis was lying or just exaggerating to get rich off of Natalie's death. I mean, it's not like he really dropped a bomb. But he definitely made things more suspicious. However, that same year in 2011, a potential witness came forward to actually corroborate portions of Dennis's story. See, like I mentioned before, there were other yachts in the harbor besides the splendor that night. And the night she died, some people on a different yacht actually heard some things. It was a woman's voice begging for assistance. They said she kept saying things like, help me, someone please help me, I'm drowning. But apparently nobody was helping. The people on this yacht didn't really know where the sound was coming from. What direction, what boat? So they couldn't get to the woman. But at one point, they heard a man reassure her and say he was helping. Except even then, she didn't really quiet down. According to the witnesses, she was still yelling and begging for someone to help her, even though they could hear a man reassuring her. It's impossible to really say what's going on. Maybe the man had lied and told the woman he was going to help just to abandon her. Maybe he was trying to find her and couldn't. Either way, after about 15 minutes, they said the ocean just fell silent and the people on this yacht didn't really know what to do. Eventually, they just convinced themselves that maybe the screams for help had been a tasteless, practical joke. So they didn't call the Coast Guard or report anything until 30 years later in 2011. Which once again, this just raises a lot of questions. If this story is true, it's odd that the people on this other yacht waited so long to report what they had heard when surely the next morning they found out a woman had drowned So perhaps they're just exaggerating. Maybe when they saw Dennis come forward and get attention, they decided to just kind of piggyback on it. It's weird because their version of events only partially matches Dennis's account. They also suggested a man, maybe Robert, knew Natalie had fallen and refused to help her. But Dennis claimed the ocean was silent after the fight, if you remember. He doesn't say anyone was ever asking for help. And these people were like, she was asking, she was screaming loud enough, we heard her. So even these stories don't really match up. Except this is wild because not long after all of this comes to light, Robert decides to make his own new confession. He now said the statement he had given to the police also wasn't fully accurate. And he confessed that he had been jealous of Christopher Walken. According to Robert, he had accused Christopher and Natalie of having an affair. This is just like what Dennis said. But Robert denied the rest of Dennis's new story. He said he hadn't been fighting with Natalie on the deck. And then she fell into the water. He hadn't tried to interfere with Dennis's attempts to find her. Robert insisted he was innocent of any wrongdoing. And like Dennis, he also published a tell all book that discussed Natalie's death. And in it, he offered two different theories about how she could have ended up drowning. His first explanation was the same thing he had said the entire time that Natalie had tried to take the dinghy to shore on her own, just to fall into the ocean and drown. But in his book, Robert also admitted that the dinghy might not have been properly put away that night. So maybe Natalie wasn't trying to take the dinghy to the island. Maybe she was trying to tie it down, like close up the boat for the night. And while she was fumbling around with the ropes, it had come loose. And then Natalie and the dinghy both fell into the water. That would explain why she was in her pajamas, because she wasn't actually expecting to go to the island. She was just trying to help the boat after, you know, the night had come to an end. Except Robert also admitted he didn't know for sure he's just speculating. So who do we believe? Dennis is saying one thing, Robert's story is different. A lot of people are unsure who to believe. It's almost like the story is all, all the different stories are floating around the same thing, but don't match up. And to make things more complicated, you're probably waiting for Christopher's theory, except he refused to talk about that night at all. By the 2010s, he was avoiding questions about Natalie during interviews. He'd only say it had been a long time ago, and he wanted to move forward with his life, not dwell on the past, which was his right. But his refusal to speak also meant nobody really knew who was lying, who was telling the truth. Could he shed any light on any of the theories? Even Natalie's family was split about what to believe. See, her sister Lana publicly implied that Natalie had been murdered. She thought Robert Wagner had something to do with it. It was the only explanation that made sense to her. Except Natalie's two daughters, Natasha and Courtney, were completely convinced their mother had just died on accident. I mean, after all, Robert had raised them, even though he wasn't Natasha's biological father, he was very involved in her life after Natalie's death. And she and Courtney said Robert was a sweet man. He was a good dad. He loved Natalie. He had no motive to hurt or kill her. Plus, they say he just wasn't capable of murdering anyone. If anything, Natalie's death had devastated him. They say he never completely got over the loss, meaning he was nothing like a cold blooded killer. So instead, Courtney and Natasha said people were spreading rumors and dragging Robert's name through the mud. They also publicly begged people to stop implying that he had done anything wrong. Not that this stopped their Aunt Lana or true crime fans because this is suspicious. I mean, anytime someone accidentally drowns on a boat trip, we're currently having one right now, people are immediately suspicious. But accidents happen, right? So even the police in this case seemed unsure about who to believe. After Dennis came forward with his new story, they actually went back and reclassified Natalie's official cause of death to drowning and undetermined factors. They weren't conclusively saying she had been murdered, but they were at least open now to the possibility. The officers also named Robert a person of interest in Natalie's death. They said they wanted to question him, but the problem was they couldn't force him to agree to an interrogation. He wasn't under arrest or charged with anything. And each time the investigators approached Robert all these years later and asked if he would consent, he said no, he didn't want to cooperate with the investigation. Now, I do want to acknowledge it is traumatic to lose someone you love. And if Natalie did drown in an accident, Robert would have every right to move on and grieve in private, especially if he knew he was a suspect. Why would you talk to police? It's perfectly legitimate to tell the police that you need to protect your own peace and mental health and to say you're not going to keep rehashing a devastating loss you experienced decades ago when you really completely feel like it was an accident. So there are plenty of valid reasons not to talk to the investigators, but also the more time went on without him giving a statement, the more people wondered why he wasn't cooperating with police. Now in 2022, the police formally cleared Robert of all suspicion. They've never spoken out about how they were able to rule him out as a suspect. If there's evidence that isn't public, we don't know about it. From the outside, it was impossible to say what happened on the night Natalie died, which unfortunately, is kind of still where things stand today. Natalie's case is officially still open. It's still classified as drowning and undetermined factors. And no one has proven it was either a murder or an accident. It all just kind of comes down to what you believe, but we do know Robert has been cleared by police. Now I'm not surprised so many people are obsessed with Natalie's case. It has twists and turns and lies and wild allegations and celebrities. There's even a supernatural element because remember the fortune teller saying to Natalie's mom that she should be aware of dark water? Sure enough, whether it was murder or an accident, Natalie did drown in dark water. The prophecy came true. It's strange and mysterious and it's also a bit disappointing because Natalie's death is incredibly high profile, well covered and documented. We still can't even really figure out how or why she died. It's great to bring attention to unsolved crimes and raise awareness of disappearances and deaths. However, awareness is in everything and sometimes even the most famous cases end up never getting solved. Do you even think this case is solvable? I mean, there's no physical evidence that we know of unless people are going to come forward and say nevermind we lied, we did it, which why would they at this point? Let me know what you guys think. Obviously, I do just want to make it obvious that everything is alleged if there is any suspicion or pointing fingers because no one has been charged in this case, but it is still one of those things that people go, huh? How exactly did this happen? All right, you guys, thank you for listening to this episode with me and I will see you next time as we go further into the dark together. Goodbye. Like this, bro, amazed this grass looks this good and this heat has to clear the trampoline and the kitty pool. Oh, perfectly struck. True Green, the easiest way to get a golf course quality lawn. Don't wait, click the screen now to sign up at TrueGreen.com. Exclusion supply, see TrueGreen.com for details.