The term "Chappaquiddick incident" refers to the circumstances surrounding the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, whose dead body was discovered underwater inside an automobile belonging to Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy. The body and the car were found in a tidal channel on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts on the morning of July 19, 1969. After the discovery, Kennedy gave a statement to police saying that on the previous night Kopechne was his passenger when he took a wrong turn and accidentally drove his car off a bridge into the water. After pleading guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of an accident after causing injury, he received a suspended sentence. The incident became a national scandal and may have influenced Kennedy's decision not to run in the 1972 presidential election.