Boat Captain Didn't Hear Natalie's Cries for Help

The captain of the boat that carried Natalie Wood on the night she died
tells ET that he was not in a position aboard the yacht to hear any
cries for help from the actress on that fateful night in 1981

"No I didn't hear cries for help because I was on the bridge of the boat and I had music going," said Dennis Davern, skipper of the yacht Splendour. The Oscar-nominated actress was aboard the yacht with Davern, Wagner and actor Christopher Walken in chilly waters off Southern California on Nov. 29, 1981, when she somehow fell overboard and drowned. 

Davern said he proposed to Wagner that they turn on a search light after the incident in a bid to locate Wood and that he also wanted to call the restaurant where they had dined earlier in the evening, but he said Wagner opposed both suggestions. "Well, I don't think the coast guard were able to conduct a search until daybreak. And that is when they found her body floating," Davern said. 

The captain claimed he had tried in the past to come forward with the information he is now making public about what happened that night, but he said nobody would listen and take him seriously. He denied he lied to authorities during the initial investigation, which ruled Wood's death accidental. "It's not really that I lied, it's just that everything wasn't said that happened that weekend."

"I'm just kind of pleased that this case is being reopened just to bring justice to Natalie," Davern added.  

MORE: Sheriff: Robert Wagner Not a Suspect in the Natalie Wood Case