I don't think it's that much of a mystery

By process of elimination, I really don't think it's that much of a mystery how Natalie Wood died.

Let's start with what is certain - based on the ear-witness testimony and the statements of Robert Wagner, Christopher Walken, and Dennis Davern over the years:

1) Wagner, Walken, Davern, and Natalie herself were all drunk and/or angry that night.

2) Wagner, Walken, and Davern all could have saved her - but didn't.

Now we'll move on to a couple of items that fall just short of being certain: it's ALMOST certain that none of the three meant for her to actually die; and it's ALMOST certain that none of the three are particularly proud of themselves for what they did or failed to do that night.

While it's clear all three men were callous jerks who failed to save her, the only way any of them committed an actual crime depends on exactly how she ended up in the water. Did she fall in - or was she pushed?

I personally have to rule out the theory that she was trying to secure the dingy to the yacht to keep it from thumping against the boat and waking her up. Sorry - but no one was trying to sleep that night.

That leaves two possible scenarios.

The first scenario is that someone - possibly Wagner - pushed her in. Probably not meaning for her to drown, but to 'teach her a lesson' that went way beyond what he intended. If this were in fact the case, then Wagner or whomever pushed her in would at least be guilty of manslaughter.

This scenario seems unlikely, however, because it doesn't explain how the dingy became untied from the yacht.

The second scenario - the one I believe is most likely - is that in a drunken, attention-seeking huff, Natalie deliberately tried to board the dingy and separate herself from boat - and then accidentally fell into the water while Wagner and the others laughed at her. While her family has always insisted Natalie was too afraid of the water to even attempt to do this, you have to keep in mind that she was REALLY pissed off and REALLY drunk that night. You also have to keep in mind that her family would be reluctant to believe it was her own clumsiness that killed her - even if her own husband did fail to save her. Finally, it would explain why Wagner and the rest would be so callous. Up until she actually drowned, they viewed the entire episode as nothing more than a hissy fit.

When I replay the unseen (to everyone except Wagner, Walken, and Davern) events of that night, I see Robert Wagner going on a drunken rampage that was returned in kind by a drunk Natalie with quite possibly Walken joining in (Davern probably just stayed quiet). I then see Natalie saying something to the effect of "I'm getting off this *beep* boat!" to which Wagner and the others just laughed - in no small part due to the fact that she couldn't swim. I see RJ saying something along the lines of "Yeah right - where ya gonna go?" Determined to make him eat those words, she then jumped into the dingy, and managed to untie it from the yacht. Then as she was shoving herself and the dingy away from the yacht - she fell in. Her stand-up hubby and the others continued to laugh at her - mistakenly believing they had plenty of time to fish her out, and that she was probably still hanging on to the dingy. It's even quite possible that Davern or Walken started to go after her - but Wagner told them to let her cool off for a while, which would explain why Davern places the blame on Wagner. When she finally went quiet, one of them - again, probably Wagner - finally went over to get her, but to his horror realized she wasn't there. The laughter stopped, and the rest is history.

In the end, I don't think it's that much of a mystery. Robert Wagner, Christopher Walken, and Dennis Davern are most likely world-class jerks - but probably not murderers.