Why wasn’t an autopsy done on the Bessette sisters?
Just curious if anyone knows why the Freeman family declined to have autopsies done on their daughters. Pretty sure under the law it was their choice?
Ted Kennedy made the decision to have John autopsied but didn’t want autopsy photos taken. Because state law requires photos, authorities agreed that the photos would never be developed lest they fall into the wrong hands.
I remember all the tabloid stories that came out after the accident speculating that Carolyn wasn’t autopsied because she was pregnant and for some reason the Kennedys didn’t want that information to be public.
That explanation never made any sense at all, because if she was pregnant there was certainly no reason for the Kennedys to want that fact hidden. (If indeed it was a fact, but alas we will never know for certain.)
Also, Carolyn possibly being pregnant doesn’t explain why Lauren was not autopsied.
Could it be that the sisters had some illegal recreational drugs in their systems? I’m sorry if my question offends but it’s the only explanation that would make sense to me. No parent would want their daughters remembered that way after such a tragedy.
It always seemed to me like there was something that someone wanted hidden from the public. It was strange to many of us in 1999 when we heard there had been no autopsy on the Bessettes.
Has this ever been explained by any authoritative source?
(EDIT: I looked up the law in MA, and an autopsy is not required for every death in Massachusetts. However, state law allows the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner or the local district attorney to legally mandate and order an autopsy if a death involves suspicious, unexpected, sudden, or violent circumstances.
When an Autopsy May Be Required
Unexpected or unexplained deaths: Sudden deaths of healthy children or adults where the cause is unknown.
Violent or traumatic deaths: Homicides, suicides, severe accidents.
So it may not have been at the discretion of the Bessette family, the decision to autopsy or not might have been made by local authorities.
* NOTE: There are conflicting reports about whether there was an autopsy of the women or not. Some media sources say a rushed autopsy of all bodies was done (in less than 4 hours, that’s VERY rushed). But most reports I’ve seen from biographers over the years say only John was autopsied.)