But two nights before Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon, an American tragedy happened in Chappaquiddick, Mass. Mary Jo Kopechne was killed. Her lifeless body was found in Sen. Ted Kennedy’s car at the bottom of Poucha Pond on Chappaquiddick Island the morning of July 18.

Kopechne, who would have turned 29 on July 26, 1969, died when the 1967 Oldsmobile she was riding in, driven by Kennedy, went off the narrow, unlit bridge just off Martha’s Vineyard, near the town of Edgartown, Mass.

In the 2018 movie, “Chappaquiddick,” when Kopechne’s body was extricated from the car and placed on the bridge, it was noted there was no water in her lungs, which would be impossible for a drowning victim. That raises more questions regarding the cause of Kopechne’s death and, more significantly, the manner in which she died.

Georgetta Nelson-Potoski, Mary Jo’s first cousin and close friend, said there remain far too many unanswered questions regarding Mary Jo’s death and Kennedy’s level of culpability.

“It’s never made any sense,” Nelson-Potoski has said. “Mary’s Jo’s parents, Gwen and Joe, always thought she died immediately. Then they found out that the scuba diver who retrieved her body from the car said she could have lived for up to three hours because of an air pocket in the car.”

So for 50 years now, the family has wondered why Kopechne, an accomplished swimmer, wasn’t able to get out of the car. In the movie, Kennedy escapes the submerged vehicle through the open window on the driver’s side. The family wonders why she didn’t follow him out.

“We would like to know what really happened,” Nelson-Potoski told me.

Nelson-Potoski and her son, Bill Nelson, said they have always tried to lead by example — clinging to the hope that people will come forward, even 50 years later, with information about that fateful night.

They have never understood why the “Boiler Room Girls” — Mary Jo was one who worked on Bobby Kennedy’s presidential campaign — have remained silent over the decades following Chappaquiddick. Many of them attended the party. What can they tell the family about what happened the night Mary Jo died?

“Hopefully, as bits and pieces come in, maybe it can all add up to something larger,” Bill Nelson said. “But barring a deathbed confession, we probably will never know the answers to the questions that need to be asked and answered.”

https://www.timesleader.com/news/750111/beyond-the-byline-kopechnes-death-an-american-tragedy