11. The Victim Left the Party with Kennedy to Go to Her Hotel
The story given to the media by Kennedy’s team was that Kennedy was driving Kopechne to the ferry so she could return to her hotel, as she was feeling under the weather. Two significant flaws quickly emerged in this story: first, Kopechne left her keys and bag behind at the party, indicating that she intended to return. Second, Kennedy did not take the well-marked road leading to the ferry, which he knew well enough to mention in his statement to police. Instead, he turned towards the fateful bridge that would have taken him and Kopechne to a small, secluded private beach.
An off-duty police officer saw Kennedy’s car sitting on the road towards the private beach at around midnight and attempted to approach it to see if the occupants needed anything. He reported that it shot off down the road at high speed before he reached it, but he noted a couple of the license plate numbers and the car’s appearance. This was around midnight, which also contradicted Kennedy’s story that he attempted to take her to the ferry well before midnight. A resident who lived on the road to the beach also reported hearing a car drive by at an unusually high speed after midnight, again calling Kennedy’s story into question.