Thomas Noguchi

And sever- several funeral homes called the coroner's office, office, uh, offering to bury McCurdy free of charge.

But officials decided to wait to see if a- any living relatives [laughs] would come forward to claim the body, and Fred Olds, who represented the Indian territory, uh, Pose of Oklahoma Wes- Oklahoma Westerns, uh, eventually convinced Dr. Thomas Noguchi, uh, then the chief medical examiner coroner of the county of Los Angeles, to allow him to bury the body in Oklahoma.

And after further testing to ensure proper identification, Olds was allowed to take the, uh, custody of the body.

And on April 22nd of 1977, a funeral possession was conducted to transport McCurdy to the Boot Hill section of the Summit View Cemetery in Guthrie, uh, Oklahoma.

I don't know.

Well, Medical Examiner Thomas Noguchi concluded that there was no evidence of foul play in Natalie Wood's death, ruling it an accidental drowning and hypothermia because the water was about 57 degrees Fahrenheit that night, so it was very, very cold.

Oh, yeah.

That is freezing.

It's really cold

... good comparison.

So Thomas Noguchi, the medical examiner, stated his belief that Natalie had likely never even gotten inside the dinghy because the motor hadn't even been started.

So again, he's kinda perpetuating, yeah, she was probably just trying to retie it and it just floated off, and then she fell into the water.

The Coroner to the Stars.

We arrive now at the account provided by Dr. Thomas Noguchi.

Serving as the chief medical examiner for the LA County during the 60s, 70s, and 80s, he might hold the strange distinction of performing more autopsies on famous celebrities than any other person in history.

That is why he was known as the coroner to the stars.

And then came the second point, one which the coroner hoped to avoid altogether, but the press had done the research.

They asked why Natalie Wood tried to leave the yacht.

The Gucci probably should have said that he didn't know or that he didn't want to speculate.

Instead, he brought up a heated but non-violent argument between Robert Wagner and Christopher Walken.