Video: '1981 SPECIAL REPORT: "THE DEATH OF NATALIE WOOD"'

(Sunday, November 29, 1981, 7:44 a.m. PST) — The body of American actress Natalie Wood, 43, was discovered this morning in a rocky cove off Santa Catalina Island, California, one mile from her husband’s 58-foot motoryacht Splendour, with a small Valiant-brand inflatable dinghy beached nearby.

Outside of drowning, many of the circumstances are unknown; it was never determined how she entered the water. Wood was with her husband Robert Wagner, Brainstorm co-star Christopher Walken, and Splendour‘s captain Dennis Davern on the evening of Nov. 28, 1981. Wagner said that she was not with him when he went to bed.

The autopsy report revealed that she had bruises on her body and arms, as well as an abrasion on her left cheek, but no indication as to how or when the injuries occurred. The autopsy also found that Wood’s blood alcohol content was 0.14 percent and that there were traces of a motion-sickness pill and a painkiller in her bloodstream, both of which increase the effects of alcohol.

Video: '48 Hours "Natalie Wood: Death in Dark Water" reveals new witnesses in investigation'

Los Angeles County coroner Thomas Noguchi ruled the cause of her death to be accidental drowning and hypothermia. According to Noguchi, Wood had been drinking and she may have slipped while trying to re-board the dinghy.

The events surrounding Wood’s death have been the subject of conflicting witness statements, prompting the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, under the instruction of the coroner’s office, to list her cause of death as “drowning and other undetermined factors” in 2012.

On Feb. 1, 2018, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department named Wagner a “person of interest” in the investigation. Wagner has denied any involvement.