Episode 8 - THE COVER UP

Natalie Wood has grown profoundly unhappy in her marriage to Robert Wagner in the years leading up to her suspicious demise — a death for which cops have labeled R.J. a “person of interest.” Now, the Oscar winner’s close friends and sister – as well as experts and investigators who have probed her case – open up about what they see as both a prelude to her divorcing Wagner — and a motive for him to do premeditated murder. In this bonus episode, we examine evidence and whether it supports that conclusion, as Wagner makes a series of strange and otherwise inexplicable decisions that end tragically with Natalie’s death.

Is Robert Wagner deceiving the public when he says Natalie Wood's death was an accident? Thirty-seven years after the Oscar winner’s inexplicable demise, the question lives on with the same vigor as when it was first asked—and the main person of interest continues his stonewalling. Now, we come as close to an answer as the world may ever come. In two explosive, face-to-face exchanges—one with a reporter from our investigative team and another with Natalie’s still-grieving sister, Lana—the Hollywood star is asked, point-blank, “Did you kill Natalie?” You’ll never believe his reply. Or the results of a lie detector test, performed by one of the world’s foremost experts. We also hear shocking final statements from those closest to the case who believe Natalie’s death was no accident and was, in fact, murder.

With the probe into Natalie Wood’s death officially reopened, shocking new details are made public as speculation mounts about what truly happened that night -- and her husband, Robert Wagner, is officially named a “person of interest.” In this episode, we look at how possible bungling by the coroner and the police — notably the mishandling of key witnesses and crucial evidence — impacted the initial investigation. We also explore how a fresh examination of the severe bruising on Natalie’s body and the emergence of new witnesses from the night she vanished forced detectives to take a closer look at the first investigation’s faulty findings.

Dennis Davern — the skipper of Natalie Wood’s death yacht — has made a dramatic escape from the virtual house arrest under which Robert Wagner placed him following the starlet’s suspicious demise. Nearly two years pass, but Dennis remains haunted by that night. Finally, he places a call to a good friend — author Martin Rulli. Dennis is finally willing to tell the truth and revise the statements he made to police. What he said, related here and accompanied by new and world exclusive details, including how he passed out Quaaludes to all aboard, will blow open the case into Natalie’s disappearance and lead to homicide cops to reopen the matter and ultimately name Wagner a person of interest.

With his wife, Natalie Wood, dead, Robert J. Wagner desperately tries to control the public narrative of what happened aboard the death yacht, The Splendour, lawyering up and coaching his boat skipper Dennis Davern on what would become his official version of events. Now, in a stunning first person account, Davern opens up about those bizarre and sinister days immediately following the tragedy — dramatically explaining how Wagner held him hostage in his estate with the help of bodyguards and a complex system of magnetic door locks.