Nearly four decades after the unexplained drowning death of Hollywood star Natalie Wood, Los Angeles County Sheriff's investigators tell "48 Hours" that her then-husband, actor Robert Wagner, is now a person of interest. Investigators want to speak with Wagner about the circumstances surrounding her death one night in 1981, they say in interviews for "Natalie Wood: Death in Dark Water" to be broadcast Saturday, Feb. 3 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. 
 
 "As we've investigated the case over the last six years, I think he's more of a person of interest now," Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Lieutenant John Corina says of Wagner in an interview with "48 Hours" correspondent Erin Moriarty. "I mean, we know now that he was the last person to be with Natalie before she disappeared." 
 
 Wood drowned off the coast of Catalina Island in California in November 1981 after she went missing from the Splendour, her family's yacht. Also aboard that night were Captain Dennis Davern, Wagner, and Wood's friend and fellow actor, Christopher Walken. The next day, the actress was found floating in the water wearing a red down jacket and flannel nightgown. After a two-week investigation, the death was ruled an accident. But, in 2011, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department reopened the death investigation. And in 2012 the Los Angeles Coroner's Office amended the death certificate, changing the manner of death from an accidental drowning to "drowning and other undetermined factors." 
 
 Now, six years after the investigation was reopened, "48 Hours" talks with the investigators about new witnesses, new evidence and new theories as to what happened that night. 
 
 Rumors of foul play have long surrounded Wood's mysterious death. At first, the three men aboard the boat -- Wagner, Walken and Davern -- told detectives that Wood, famously terrified of dark water, took off in a dinghy and went ashore. Over time, however, Wagner and Davern's accounts have shifted, a red flag to the investigators. 
 
 Investigators say Wagner has refused to speak with them since the case was reopened. Corina tells Moriarty he doesn't believe Wagner has told the whole story. 
 
 "I haven't seen him tell the details that match ... all the other witnesses in this case," Corina says of Wagner. "I think he's constantly ... he's changed the -- his story a little bit. ...and his version of events just don't add up." 
 
 Walken has spoken with investigators. 
 
 Was it an accident or something more? 
 
 Investigators today note the autopsy report indicates there were a number of bruises that appeared to be fresh on Wood's body. 
 
 "She looked like the victim of an assault," says Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Detective Ralph Hernandez. 
 
 Los Angeles Coroner's Office 
 
 "Do you believe Natalie Wood was murdered?" Moriarty asks. 
 
 "I think it's suspicious enough to make us think that something happened," Corina says. 
 
 "Do you believe Robert Wagner knows a lot more about what happened to his wife than he's ever said?" Moriarty asks. 
 
 "Well, I think he does because he's the last one to see her," Corina replies. 
 
 Moriarty and the "48 Hours" team have been covering the Wood case for six years and was the only news organization to capture the detectives searching the Splendour for clues. "48 Hours" reports on the latest information in the case through interviews with the detectives leading the case, with Wood's sister Lana Wood, as well as archival interviews with Wagner, Davern and others. "48 Hours"' efforts to get comment from Wagner and Walken were unsuccessful. 
 
 "We have not been able to prove this was a homicide. And we haven't been able to prove that this was an accident, either," says Hernandez. "The ultimate problem is we don't know how she ended up in the water." ||||| Natalie Wood in January 1979. (Photo: AP) 
 
 The death of movie star Natalie Wood four decades ago continues to fascinate the media and now the "Dr. Phil" show has joined in, hosting the yacht skipper who now claims Wood was murdered and Wood's sister who accuses her ex-brother-in-law, actor Robert Wagner, of doing it. 
 
 On November 29, it will be 37 years since Wood, the Hollywood child star-turned-Oscar-nominated actress, died at age 43 in a mysterious drowning off the coast of Santa Catalina, the popular pleasure island in the Pacific southwest of Los Angeles. 
 
 Wagner, Wood and their friend, actor Christopher Walken, sailed to the island in the couple's yacht, Splendour. Wood disappeared from the yacht under circumstances that remain murky. 
 
 Hours later, her body was found, clad in a flannel nightgown, red down jacket and blue socks, floating in the Pacific about a mile away from the yacht. 
 
 Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood in 1980. (Photo: AP) 
 
 Her death was initially ruled accidental drowning; in 2012, it was changed to drowning plus "undetermined factors." 
 
 The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department has been trying for decades to pin Wood's death on Wagner, now 88, by periodically re-opening their investigation, labeling the death "suspicious," and calling for eye and ear witnesses to come forward. 
 
 In interviews Thursday and Friday on his show, host Phil McGraw talked to two familiar faces from the Wood saga: Dennis Davern, the man usually identified as the "skipper" of the yacht, and actress Lana Wood, 72, Natalie's sister. 
 
 A frame grab from a First Coast News broadcast in Nov. 28, 2011, Dennis Davern, former captain of the boat actress Natalie Wood was on just before she drowned in 1981. (Photo: First Coast News) 
 
 Davern, who initially told police Wood's death was an accident, now is saying he believes it was murder. "You believe Robert Wagner murdered Natalie Wood?" McGraw asked him on Friday. “Yes, I really do,” Davern said. 
 
 Davern told McGraw he heard Wood and Wagner engage in a loud fight that night and when it grew quiet he went on deck to find Wagner standing alone. Wagner told him that Wood was missing, and when Davern suggested calling for help, Wagner blocked him from doing so. 
 
 Later, he said, Wagner instructed him on the story they would tell to police: That she must have slipped and fallen into the water by accident. 
 
 Lana Wood has long been suspicious of that story and of Wagner's behavior on the yacht that night; on Thursday, she told McGraw that Wagner has “something to hide.” 
 
 “Are you suggesting that he knocked her out and threw her in the water?” McGraw asked. “Something like that, absolutely,” she said. 
 
 She criticized the original investigation into Wood's death and remains angry at "RJ," as Wagner was known, for continuing to refuse to talk to detectives about it. 
 
 “The only reason can be is that he has something to hide. Otherwise, why wouldn’t you talk to the police?” Lana Wood told McGraw. “Why wouldn’t you say ‘Ask me anything, of course.’?” 
 
 Lana Wood has made similar accusations in the past. In July, she appeared on "Megyn Kelly Today" to talk about the tragedy. When Kelly asked her if she thinks Wagner murdered her sister, Lana Wood said, “Yes.” 
 
 Wagner has long denied murdering his wife, and routinely declines to comment when the case is brought up in the media or by sheriff's detectives. 
 
 His rep, Alan Nierob, told USA TODAY that Davern and Lana Wood should be shamed. 
 
 "They are despicable human beings, capitalizing on the accidental death of a beloved member of the Wagner family," Nierob said. "They should be ashamed of themselves." 
 
 CLOSE Almost four decades after the tragic death of Hollywood star Natalie Wood, investigators reveal there is a new person of interest in the case: her then-husband, Robert Wagner. Susana Victoria Perez (@susana_vp) has more. Buzz60 
 
 Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2NIkka5 ||||| FILE - A Dec. 1, 1981 file photo shows actress Natalie Wood. Investigators are now calling 87-year-old actor Robert Wagner a "person of interest" in the 1981 death of his wife Natalie Wood. Mystery has... (Associated Press) 
 
 LOS ANGELES (AP) — New witnesses have emerged in the 1981 drowning of actress Natalie Wood, prompting investigators to deem it a "suspicious death" and name her former husband, 87-year-old actor Robert Wagner, a "person of interest," Los Angeles sheriff's officials said. 
 
 For nearly four decades, mystery and speculation have swirled around the death of the actress who was nominated for three Academy Awards and starred in "West Side Story" and "Rebel Without a Cause." 
 
 She was on a yacht with Wagner, actor Christopher Walken and the boat captain on Thanksgiving weekend of 1981. After a night of drinking, her body was found floating in the waters off Southern California's Catalina Island. She was 43. 
 
 Investigators initially ruled it an accident but reopened the case in 2011 to see whether Wagner or anyone else played a role after the boat's captain said he heard the couple arguing the night of her disappearance. The coroner's office amended Wood's death certificate the next year to include "drowning and other undetermined factors." 
 
 In a statement Thursday, sheriff's spokeswoman Nicole Nishida said new witnesses interviewed since the case was reopened gave statements that "portray a new sequence of events on the boat that night." 
 
 One of the witnesses described hearing yelling and crashing sounds coming from the couple's stateroom, she said. Shortly after that, separate witnesses heard a man and woman arguing on the back of the boat and believe the voices were those of Wood and Wagner, Nishida said. 
 
 The statements differed from the original version of events provided by witnesses, including those who were on the boat, she said. 
 
 The sheriff's department said Wagner is considered a person of interest. 
 
 "Do we have enough to make an arrest at this moment? No," Nishida said. 
 
 The police statement was issued after CBS News aired an interview with Los Angeles County sheriff's Lt. John Corina, who said he doesn't believe Wagner has told the whole story about what happened. 
 
 Investigators have said Wagner has not been interviewed since the probe was reopened. They said in 2013 that they had tried at least 10 times to interview him but he refused. 
 
 Wagner has denied any involvement in his wife's death and no charges have been filed. His publicist, Alan Nierob, declined to comment Thursday. 
 
 Conflicting versions of what happened on the yacht have contributed to the mystery of her death. Wood, Wagner and Walken had all been drinking heavily in the hours before the actress disappeared. 
 
 Wagner wrote in a 2008 memoir that he and Walken argued that night. He wrote that Walken went to bed and he stayed up for a while, but when he went to bed, he noticed that his wife and a dinghy that had been attached to the yacht were missing. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Follow Michael Balsamo on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/MikeBalsamo1 .
– For nearly 40 years, the death of Natalie Wood has remained a mystery. First the 43-year-old actress was ruled to have died of accidental drowning after disappearing from a yacht she was on with husband Robert Wagner and actor Christopher Walken. Then, in 2012, that ruling shifted to drowning plus "other undetermined factors," with LA County Sheriff's Department investigators suspicious there was more to the case. Wood's sister, Lana Wood, has contended for years that Wagner was responsible for her sibling's death, and this week, Dr. Phil McGraw added oxygen to that theory by having Lana Wood and the yacht's captain, Dennis Davern, on his show for two days of interviews on the subject, USA Today reports. "You believe Robert Wagner murdered Natalie Wood?" McGraw asked Davern, who'd initially stuck with the accidental drowning story. "Yes, I really do," Davern answered. He says he heard Wood and Wagner fighting, and when the noise ceased, he went up on the deck to find Wagner standing there solo; Davern says Wagner insisted they say Wood likely slipped and fell into the water. Lana Wood sticks by that, too. "Are you suggesting that [Wagner] knocked her out and threw her in the water?" McGraw asked. "Something like that, absolutely," she answered. Per Us Weekly, Lana Wood also recently appeared on a podcast in which she says that, shortly after her sister's death, Hollywood exec Rowland Perkins informed her Wagner was keeping her out of Tinseltown. "He said, 'Stop trying to get a job in production or acting. You've been blacklisted by Robert Wagner," Lana Wood said. A rep for Wagner, now 88, tells USA Today that Davern and Lana Wood are "despicable human beings" and that "they should be ashamed of themselves."