One year ago

BOSTON (AP) -- The driftwood memorial has long since disappeared from the beach where wreckage from John F. Kennedy Jr.'s plane washed ashore. And most of the questions about why the Piper Saratoga crashed off Martha's Vineyard a year ago -- killing him, his wife and her sister -- have been answered.

Family and friends plan no public tribute to mark the first anniversary of their July 16, 1999 deaths, and police on Martha's Vineyard say they don't expect a throng of the Kennedy-curious to gather in remembrance.

In fact, perhaps the only sign that a year has passed is the media bonanza accompanying the anniversary.

The handsome face of the president's son graces at least a half-dozen magazine and tabloid covers this week, and books have hit store shelves to coincide with the anniversary.

Kennedy, 38, died along with his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, 33, and her 34-year-old sister, Lauren Bessette. They were en route from New Jersey to the wedding of his cousin when Kennedy apparently became disoriented and plunged the plane into the ocean, according to federal investigators.