[Robert A Cook PE]

No autopsy was ever performed to determine her exact cause of death.

The writer is, AGAIN, betraying his/her ignorance and prejudices!

She was found twisted upside down with her face wedged into a small slot in the back seat near the floor of the upside car!

"No cause of death" ?!??!?!? (This implies, of course, that the crash killed her and Teddy was "OK" in not needing to go get help/try to help her himself..)

WTF?

She died in the dark, cold, frightened, freezing in the chill water of DROWNING!

[Howlin]

He said he took a wrong turn and drove his car into eight feet of water. He got of the car, returned to the party and brought two other men to the scene of the accident. When they were unable to rescue the girl, he told the others he would call the police.

He did not. Instead, he returned to his motel, spoke to an employee there, began making telephone calls to associates and went to sleep. All that time Mary Jo Kopechne remained in the car.

Possibly she could have been saved. The captain of the Edgartown, Massachusetts scuba team believes she may have stayed alive in an air pocket for several hours.

The next morning the car and the girl’s body were found. When Kennedy finally completed an accident report, he didn’t even know her name, referring to her simply as “Miss Mary ___.”

There was a conflict on what time the accident had occurred. A sheriff said he had seen Kennedy’s car hours after Kennedy said the accident occurred. The senator said he based his estimate on the clock of the rented car he was driving. When it was determined the car didn’t have a clock, Kennedy changed his story.

***

I can't find it right this second, but the the scuba guy, Farrar said that her fingers were griping the seat "like talons."

- Farrar thrust himself through the open window and into the car. Looking up, he found the body of a young woman. Her head was cocked back, her face pressed into the footwell. Both hands gripped the front edge of the back seat to hold herself in conformity with its upholstered contours. It was not the position assumed by a person knocked unconscious by the impact of a crash, Farrar said. "If she had been dead or unconscious, she would have been prone, sinking to the bottom or floating on top. She definitely was holding herself in a position to avail herself of the last remaining air that had to be trapped in the car."
- Farrar took hold of the woman's thigh, and as soon as he touched the body he knew she was dead; the flesh in his hand was hard as wood. "Instead of life-saving, I realized I was now evidence-gathering," Farrar said. "Because I was the only person who would be able to observe this situation, it behooved me to pay attention to what I saw underwater to be able to report it."

[RHINO369]

Its not the part that he drove into the water that sickens me about this, because everyone has accidents, some are just worse than others. Its not even the probability that he was drunk, hell most people have driven a little drunk, especially back then. Its the part where he left her to die. How'd he get out? Hell even the part where he didn't try to save her (well he claims he did, but I SERIOUSLY doubt it) isn't criminal. Its the part where he left her, and just went home. And the icing on the cake is he called a lawyer before he called the police.