Speculation surfaces in the Natalie Wood death investigation that her down jacket could have helped keep her alive for hours in the water. Meanwhile, did Robert Wagner give the boat captain hush money after Wood drowned? INSIDE EDITION reports.
Dramatic new details are emerging about Natalie Wood's tragic final hours of life. Investigators believe Wood remained alive for several hours and could have been saved.
An INSIDE EDITION demonstration shows the down jacket Wood was wearing would have kept her afloat.
Our model wore a similar jacket at the West End Sports Club in New York City, and it kept her bouyant, even when wet.
INSIDE EDITION's Les Trent asked, "Is that jacket giving you any sort of buoyancy?"
"It is definitely. I feel like I have some sort of life jacket on," said the model.
The autopsy report obtained by INSIDE EDITION noted "the absence of any rigor mortis" indicating she had stayed alive for several hours.
Meanwhile, Tuesday night detectives investigating the newly reopened case interviewed witness Marilyn Wade at her home in Los Angeles. She repeated the story she told on 48 Hours Mystery.
Wade said, "I heard a woman calling for help, Help me! Somebody please help me! I'm drowning!' "
Incredibly, she says authorities have never interviewed her before.
And did actor Robert Wagner give money to yacht captain Dennis Davern following Wood's death?
Wagner, who is not a suspect, reportedly helped him get work as an extra in Wagner's TV series Hart to Hart. Davern once told Vanity Fair: "Wagner used to give me checks, a thousand, two thousand. My friends said it was hush money."
Robert Wagner guest starred in an episode of NCIS broadcast Tuesday night. Ironically, he played a murder suspect, wrongly accused.
INSIDE EDITION found home movies on YouTube shot in Malibu in 1965. In the video you can see Wood racing to the water, then stopping as if afraid. But a friend encourages her to go in. She froliced happily in the water until her bikini strap comes loose and she runs ashore.
