Los County Sheriff’s Department Det. Ralph Hernandez made this amazing claim — and many more blockbuster allegations — in a world exclusive interview included as part the new podcast series Fatal Voyage: The Mysterious Death of Natalie Wood.
In a chilling tell-all interview with investigative journalist Dylan Howard – who also hosts the podcast – Hernandez explosively said, "As soon as we looked at the autopsy report and photos, the bruises just stood out.
"You look at the bruising and she looks like the victim of an assault!
Added Hernandez, a homicide veteran of 10 years: "The fact is that we have a lot of information as to the events of what occurred that evening."
"We have a lot of evidence that tends to point to a very suspicious death and would certainly indicate the possibility of foul play."
Natalie, 43, and her hot-tempered husband Rober Wagner, along with her Brainstorm co-star Christopher Walken were aboard their yacht, the Splendour, off California’s Catalina Island on Nov. 28, 1981, when she mysteriously vanished.
The LA coroner initially ruled Natalie’s death an accident by drowning and hypothermia.
Over the years, Wagner has refused to cooperate with cops — even after the case was reopened 2011. A year later, LA’s chief coroner amended Natalie’s cause of death to "drowning and other undetermined factors."
In February, cops officially named Wager a "person of interest," noting he was the last person seen with Natalie while she was alive. The couple may have been arguing aboard the Splendour in a lovers’ spat! Wagner is not a suspect and her death has not been ruled a homicide.
As both Hernandez and the podcast notes, he initially attributed a broken wine bottle discovered aboard the yacht to rough seas. The yacht’s skipper, Dennis Davern, however, has contradicted that account, saying Wagner slammed the bottle against a coffee table after seeing Natalie and Walken giggling and having, "fun."
"R.J.’s lack of participation in our reopening" the case and "his changing of the story certainly adds to our suspicions," Hernandez allowed. "The bottom line is, we have someone who died under very suspicious circumstances" and "our job is to get to the truth and to hopefully come up with enough evidence to prove that truth."
"We’d love to solve this case," the determined detective added. "We’d love to come to the truth, whatever that truth might be. We would love to at least bring closure to the people that deserve to know the truth."