Man Says He Heard Natalie Wood Screaming

A man who says he was about 50 yards from the boat Natalie Wood was on the night she drowned says he heard the actress “screaming for help.” Anthony Sakal, 39, told “Inside Edition” he was 9 at the time, and had been aboard another boat about 50 yards from the Splendour – the vessel Wood had been on with her husband, Robert Wagner, and Christopher Walken – when the actress somehow ended up in the water. Officials recently reopened the investigation into Wood’s 1981 death, saying they received new information regarding the case, but they haven’t offered any details. Sakal’s mother, Marilyn Wayne, publicly revealed last week that she heard a woman screaming for help the night Wood died. Anthony Sakal recalled his own memories in his interview with “Inside Edition.” “Natalie Wood was screaming for help. The other party was joking about helping her … . I can only tell you they responded, ‘Hang on!’ And, then nothing happened.” When pressed to describe what else he heard, Sakal replied: “I heard, ‘I’m drowning, please help me.’ That sort of thing. I heard from the other boat, ‘Don’t worry, we’re going to save you.’” Sakal said the people on the other boat sounded drunk and didn’t seem to believe Wood’s cries for help were serious.