The image is haunting: a black 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88, belly-up in the murky, tidal waters of Poucha Pond. For decades, the Chappaquiddick incident has been framed as a political scandal—the moment Ted Kennedy’s presidential dreams essentially hit a dead end. But at the heart of the wreckage was a 28-year-old woman named Mary Jo Kopechne. The most gut-wrenching question that still keeps historians and forensic experts up at night isn't just why Kennedy waited ten hours to report the crash. It’s the terrifying possibility of how long was Mary Jo Kopechne alive in the car after it flipped off the Dike Bridge.
Most people assume she died instantly. That’s the "cleaner" version of the story. If she drowned the second the car hit the water, then Kennedy’s delay, while cowardly, wouldn't have changed the outcome. But the man who actually pulled her body from the car doesn’t believe that. Not even close.
The Diver’s Grim Discovery: Was There an Air Pocket?
John Farrar was the captain of the Edgartown Fire Department’s scuba rescue team. On the morning of July 19, 1969, he was the one who swam down into the dark water to see what was inside that Oldsmobile. When he found Mary Jo, she wasn't just floating.
Farrar testified that her body was in a "consciously assumed position." Her head was pressed up into the footwell of the backseat, her face tilted toward the floorboards—which, in an overturned car, would have been the highest point. Her hands were gripping the seat. To Farrar, this didn't look like the body of someone who had been knocked unconscious and drowned. It looked like the body of someone who had fought for every last molecule of oxygen.
Farrar's professional opinion was blunt: Mary Jo Kopechne likely lived for at least two to four hours in a pocket of trapped air.
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He didn't just base this on her position. When he brought her to the surface, he noted that she didn't look like a typical drowning victim. Instead of being full of water, she was "too buoyant." When rescuers pressed on her chest, a "blood froth" came out of her mouth rather than just pond water. In forensic terms, that kind of froth is often a sign of suffocation (asphyxiation) rather than drowning. Basically, she may have breathed and re-breathed the same air until the CO2 levels became lethal.
The Timeline That Doesn't Add Up
To understand the horror of those potential hours, you've gotta look at the clock. Kennedy claimed the accident happened around 11:15 p.m. on July 18. However, a deputy sheriff named Christopher "Huck" Look testified he saw a car matching Kennedy’s description—with a man and a woman inside—at 12:40 a.m.
If Look was right, the crash happened much later. If Farrar was right about the air pocket, Mary Jo could have been alive and conscious in total darkness while Ted Kennedy was back at the Shiretown Inn, reportedly complaining to the hotel clerk about a noisy party.
Why No Autopsy?
This is the part that really fuels the "cover-up" theories. You’d think in a high-profile death involving a U.S. Senator, an autopsy would be mandatory. Nope. Dr. Donald Mills, the associate medical examiner, looked at the body, declared it a drowning, and let the family take her home to Pennsylvania.
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By the time the District Attorney in Massachusetts, Edmund Dinis, tried to get the body exhumed for an autopsy, it was too late. The Kopechne family fought it in court. They had been told—possibly by Kennedy associates—that an autopsy was only being sought to see if Mary Jo was pregnant, which they found insulting. A judge eventually denied the request.
Without that autopsy, we will never 100% know the physiological cause of death. We are left with two competing versions of reality:
- The Kennedy Version: She drowned immediately; no amount of help could have saved her.
- The Rescue Version: She survived for hours in an air pocket and died because no one called for help.
Could She Have Been Saved?
Honestly, this is the most tragic "what if" in American political history. John Farrar was adamant. He said, "I could have had her out of that car twenty-five minutes after I got the call."
The Dike Bridge wasn't in the middle of a deserted wilderness. There were houses nearby. There was a phone at the cottage where the party had been held. There were even people with boats nearby. If Kennedy had knocked on a door instead of walking back to the cottage, diving fruitlessly with his friends, and then swimming across the channel to his hotel, Farrar might have been in the water by midnight.
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If she was alive for two or three hours, the window for rescue was wide open. Instead, she was left in a submerged tomb for nearly nine hours before the car was even reported.
The Science of the "Air Void"
Is it even possible to live that long in a car? Physics says yes. When a car flips, air often gets trapped in the trunk or the footwells. In a 1960s Oldsmobile—a heavy, relatively airtight boat of a car—that air pocket could have been substantial. If she kept her head in that space, she would have survived until the oxygen was depleted or the water rose high enough to snuff out the pocket.
It’s a slow, terrifying way to go. You’re cold, you’re in pitch blackness, and you’re listening to the water lap against the glass, waiting for a siren that never comes.
Actionable Insights: Why This Still Matters
While we can't change what happened at Chappaquiddick, the case serves as a massive lesson in forensic accountability and emergency response.
- Demand Immediate Transparency: The lack of an autopsy at Chappaquiddick is a textbook example of how "skipping the small stuff" can lead to decades of doubt. In any unexplained death, forensic evidence is the only thing that protects the truth.
- Understand the "Air Pocket" Phenomenon: If you ever find yourself in a submerged vehicle, the goal is to get out before it sinks or immediately after. If it flips, look for the highest point where air might be trapped, but prioritize escaping through a window or door as fast as possible.
- The Duty to Report: Beyond the legalities, Chappaquiddick is a case study in the "bystander effect" and the moral weight of leadership. The delay in reporting wasn't just a legal lapse; it was the variable that likely cost a life.
The question of how long was Mary Jo Kopechne alive in the car will never have a definitive answer because the physical evidence was buried with her in 1969. But the testimony of the man who found her suggests she didn't die the moment the wheels left the bridge—she died waiting for a rescue that was never called.
To further understand the complexities of the Chappaquiddick case, you can review the 1970 Inquest testimony from the Edgartown District Court, which provides the full, unfiltered accounts of John Farrar and the other first responders on the scene.