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Mexican authorities wondered how Carol Wayne came to drown in waters four feet deep, fully clothed. There were no cuts or abrasions, so a fall from the nearby rocks was ruled out. The coroner stated that death occurred 3 – 4 days earlier and the body tested negative for drugs and alcohol.

Suspicions were raised: Carol Wayne had to be identified by workers at the Las Hadas resort where the couple had been staying earlier in the week. When locals went to look for Wayne’s traveling companion, they discovered that Edward Durston checked out three days earlier – leaving Wayne’s luggage at the airport with a message that she would pick up her bags in the morning.

Carol Wayne could not swim, and reportedly did not like to go too near the water. So how did she happen to be found dead in calm and shallow waters?

“Carol Wayne’s death is unsolved, certainly,” the U.S. Consular William LaCoque was quoted as saying in 1990. “But I don’t think it was a drowning. A drowning, yes, of course, but there is much more to it than that.” What more, we may never know.

As an aside, many readers may remember the (alleged) LSD related death of Art Linkletter’s daughter Diane. She jumped (or fell) from a sixth floor apartment building in 1969.

Art Linkletter basically ended his successful television career when he started crusading against drugs with a fervor that made it hard for middle America to find the afternoon talk show host funny anymore.

Not that it necessarily means anything, but Diane Linkletter’s companion the night she was killed was Edward Durston.

Edward Durston has been a companion of 2 Hollywood starlets’ deaths? I’m surprised he wasn’t hanging with Anna Nicole too!

E! Mysteries & Scandals did an episode on Carol Wayne – 60s game show and sitcom star.

All that was discovered by producers is that in 1985, Carol Wayne and her companion Ed Durston had to leave their posh resort Las Hadas hotel in Manzanillo (they wanted to extend stay but hotel was booked— or they ran out of money?) and when Carol was not happy with the nearby hotel option (2 star) she stormed off in a huff.

Ed went to airport with her luggage – hoping she would show up for their planned flight. She never did. She turned up days later – dead – floating in the shallow bay.

Supposedly Ed Durston came home to LA very shook up (according to his ex wife) and had no idea where Carol had gone. Ed Durston was never questioned in her death as a potential murderer. His ex-wife told E! producers (off camera) that she knew in her heart Ed did not harm Carol – and he had been genuinely worried for her safety (Ed Durston was the guy with Dianne Linkletter the night she jumped out the window).

Carol was supposedly terrified of water (even refusing baths) according to her “personal assistant” interviewed by E! in 1999 — So how did she get in the water?
Did she score drugs and pass out — get abducted and raped ?
It’s not hard to imagine — a buxom blonde by herself – getting grabbed/raped and murdered in Mexico and murderer going free.

Mexican officials performed an autopsy and said she was clear of drugs or alcohol (but was this accurate or just shoddy medical techniques?) and they also ruled out foul play. It was called an accidental drowning.

Regardless of how she drowned— her body was cremated at the request of Barry Feinstein – her ex-husband and the father of her only son, Alex.

Her look-a-like sister Nina Wayne (a 60s actress — and mother of a daughter named Jessica with John Drew Barrymore) apparently had no say in the matter of her sister’s body.

Then again…her body was horribly bloated and cremation was quick and easy — but the cremation also destroyed her remains for any future examinations in the United States.

E! Producers supposedly found out (and this was not in the episode but was told to me) that her ex-husband Barry Feinstein had an accidental death insurance policy out on Carol — and he was able to collect the double-indemnity money due to the Mexican Gov’t findings that it was an accidental drowning and not drug/booze/murder related.

Carol had declared bankruptcy a year earlier and posed for Playboy for $$ and her drug use was escalating (she looked high as a kite as celeb judge on the Cable TV pageant “Best Chest in the West”).

Carol chose the now familiar “Britney / Lohan” cure of vacationing instead of serious rehab.

It was a tragic end to a lady that brought a lot of laughs via her TV appearances.

With the cocaine addicted / over-the-hill actress dead, and the insurance money collected (on her son’s behalf?) nobody asked another question about it — until E! went around asking colleagues and friends and relatives in 1999.

Barry Feinstein would not be interviewed, and Nina Wayne refused to be filmed for the show – wanting to leave it all in the past.

I smell a cover-up.