Los
Angeles County coroner’s officials state in an 10-page addendum to
Wood’s autopsy report that some of the bruises may have occurred before
she went into the water and drowned, but that could not be definitively
determined.
The report reveals new
details about a renewed investigative interest in Wood’s case, but it
does not answer many of lingering questions about the actress’ death and
a Sheriff’s Department spokesman said it has not changed the ongoing
status of the case.
Officials
reviewed Wood’s case after sheriff’s investigators in late 2011 renewed
their inquiry into her November 1981 drowning. Wood’s death certificate
was amended last year to change her cause of death from drowning to
“drowning and other undetermined factors” and the report released Monday
details the reasons for the alteration.
The
certificate was also amended to state that the circumstances of how the
Oscar-nominated actress ended up inthe water were “not clearly
established.”
Wood was on a yacht
off Catalina Island with husband Robert Wagner and co-star Christopher
Walken on Thanksgiving weekend in 1981 before somehow ending up in the
water. A dinghy that was attached to the boat was found along the
island’s shoreline, but investigators could not locate it to review it
last year.
Several of the original
coroner’s investigators who worked on the case were re-interviewed, and
officials attempted to test some items taken during the investigation
into Wood’s death and an autopsy, but they could not be located.
Wood’s
autopsy found bruises on both of her arms, a small scratch on her neck
and abrasions described as superficial on her forehead, left brow and
cheek.
“The location of the
bruises, the multiplicity of the bruises, lack of head trauma, or facial
bruising support bruising having occurred prior to entry in the water,”
the report states. “Since there are unanswered questions and limited
additional evidence available for evaluation, it is opined by this
Medical Examiner that the manner of death should be left as
undetermined,” Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran
wrote in the report completed in June.
Officials
also considered that Wood wasn’t wearing a life jacket and had no
history of suicide and didn’t leave a note in amending its report and
Wood’s death certificate.
The report was released Monday after sheriff’s officials released a security hold.
Sheriff’s
spokesman Steve Whitmore said the agency has known about the findings
in the newly released autopsy report for several months and it does not
change the status of the investigation, which remains open. He said
Wagner is not considered a suspect in Wood’s death.
Wood
was nominated for three Academy Awards during her lifetime. Her death
stunned the world and has remained one of Hollywood’s most enduring
mysteries. The original detective on the case, Wagner, Walken have all
said they considered her death an accident.
Conflicting
versions of what happened on the yacht shared by Wood, her
actor-husband Robert Wagner and their friend, actor Christopher Walken,
have contributed to the mystery of how the actress died.
The
newly released report states there are conflicting statements about
when the boat’s occupants discovered Wood was missing. The report
estimates her time of death was around midnight, and she was reported
missing at 1:30 a.m.

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