Captain passes lie detector
Captain passes lie detector_ The captain of the yacht from which Natalie Wood fell and drowned thirty years ago has passed a polygraph test over his account of the incident.
Dennis Davern, 62 , said he heard the West Side Story star rowing with her husband Robert Wagner minutes before she disappeared. He has said he believes that Wagner, now 81 , had a role in his late wife's death, and the case has recently been re-opened though the actor is not said to be in consideration as a suspect.
Davern had a lie detector test performed on him by examiner Howard Temple, who says that the results of the polygraph 'indicated he was telling the truth.'
Temple told Good Morning America that Davern explained how after Wood’s death Wagner instructed him to not talk about the drowning.
'Davern made the statement that he stayed at the Wagner home … [was] told not to talk …Wagner paid for his therapy, and Davern could not leave the estate without bodyguards,' Temple relayed.
When asked if Wagner, who has one daughter Courtney, 37 , with Natalie and is the adopted father of her child Natasha Gregson, 41 , from a Wood's previous marriage, should take responsibility for her death, Davern replied: 'Yes I would say so.'
He also mentioned his own culpability, and recalled: 'We didn’t take any steps to see if we could locate her. It was a matter of don’t look too hard, don’t turn on search light, don’t call anyone.'
Davern also admitted that he lied to officials in the initial police report.
His motives for revealing this damning account of that fateful night are being questioned as he has co-authored a book about the actress’s death.
He and Marti Rulli wrote the 2009 book Goodbye Natalie, Goodbye Splendour, about the circumstances surrounding the actress’ death at 43, just off the island of Catalina in California.
He and Lana Wood, Natalie Wood’s sister, asked authorities to re-open the case last year, the latter believes that Natalie would never have willingly gone near the water because she was terrified of it.
According to ABC news, detectives have now interviewed Marilyn Wayne, the witness who was aboard a ship 40 yards away that night in 1981.
She claims she heard Wood screaming for help moments before she allegedly drowned off the coast of Catalina Island in California.
'They talked to me about what I remember from the case all those years ago,' Wayne told “Entertainment Tonight.”
Actor Christopher Walken, now 68 , with whom she was filming the movie Brainstorm, was also aboard the boat that night.
The official cause of Wood’s death was determined to be accidental drowning, speculation has been rife about the exact details and the case remains one of Hollywood’s longest-running mysteries.
Lifeguard Roger Smith, who found Wood's body in the water, has told Good Morning America that he believes the actress may have floated alive for hours.
'I could have saved her,' Smith said, adding that he was 'not called in time.'
So far Wagner and Walken, the two men with Wood that night, are keeping quiet regarding the reopening of the case.
When gossip website TMZ.com caught up with Walken in West Hollywood on Tuesday to ask him what he thinks about the reopening of the case, Walken said: 'I don’t know.'
Wagner, best known for the series Hart to Hart,” is filming an appearance as a murder suspect on an episode of CBS’ NCIS this week.
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