Crime & Safety

UPDATE: Two Dead and One Injured in Car Accident on Property Once Owned by Jacqueline Kennedy

Judith Morse, of West Tisbury, and another woman were killed, while another sustained minor injuries in an accident this afternoon on the Kennedy property in Aquinnah

Two women were killed, and another injured in a car accident this afternoon at Red Gate Farm, the Kennedy family estate, in Aquinnah.

A preliminary investigation by State Police Sgt. Thomas Medeiros into the double motor vehicle fatality on the private property, where a third victim suffered minor injuries, indicates that Judith Morse, 70, of West Tisbury, was backing her 2000 Land Cruiser down a private driveway when she struck a tree. She then attempted to drive forward when the vehicle struck an electrical box, a porch attached to a garage, and then traveled up a hill striking a tree head on.

According to Medeiros, investigators aren’t sure exactly what happened, but the driver was first disorientated by hitting the electrical box and then the porch.

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“At some point the air bags deployed and that confused her more,” Medeiros said. “They then headed straight up the hill and hit the biggest tree on that hill head on.”

Both the driver and the second victim, Susan Lombard, 69, of Lyman, NH were killed in the crash. The rear seat passenger Susan Papanicolaou, 68, from Minneapolis, received minor injuries.

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When Mederious arrived on the scene Papanicolaou was attempting to administer CPR to the other victims, he said.

Albert Fischer, the caretaker for the estate, realized there was a car on the private property and when he turned around, it had disappeared, Mederious said. Fischer then drove out to Moshup’s Trail to see if he could find it.

“When he saw that the car wasn’t on Moshup’s, he realized it had to still be on the property. That’s when he went back and saw the SUV crashed into the tree.”

Mederious said that the women did not have permission to be on the property.

“They probably figured, it being March and a quiet time of year, they could just go down there to poke around. There was no mal intent on their being down there.”

All three female occupants of the vehicle were transported to . Morse and Lombard were pronounced deceased.

The incident remains under investigation by Troop D of the Massachusetts State Police with the assistance of the State Police Collision Analysis Reconstruction Section and the State Police Crime Scene Services Section.


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