Robert Kennedy Jr.'s wife Mary found dead in NY home: report

Mary Kennedy, the estranged wife of Robert Kennedy Jr. who battled drugs and alcohol, was found dead Wednesday in an apparent suicide, officials said.

Bedford town police said they found "a deceased individual" inside an "outbuilding" at the Kennedy home on South Bedford Road.

The Westchester County medical examiner's office confirmed it has Kennedy's body and said an autopsy is scheduled for Thursday.

A police investigator who answered the phone at the medical examiner's office said he would not answer questions about how Kennedy, 52, died.

In a statement issued by Attorney Kerry Lawrence, her family said: "We deeply regret the death of our beloved sister Mary, whose radiant and creative spirit will be sorely missed by those who loved her. Our heart goes out to her children, who she loved without reservation."

Mary Kennedy was the second wife of Robert Kennedy Jr., who is the nephew of the late President John F. Kennedy and the son of former Sen. Robert Kennedy.

Robert Kennedy Jr., 58, filed for divorce from Mary Kennedy in 2010 and the couple were living separately, said a source who knew Mary Kennedy well, noting that the pair, who had four children, were struggling with custody issues.
The children, the source said, were staying with their father in the Mount Kisco area, not far from their mother's home.

"This is very depressing news, and very sad for her and the children," said the source.

Officers responded to Mary Kennedy's home at 1:36 p.m. after receiving information about a possible death there, according to a police statement, which did not specify how officials learned of her death.

Two unidentified people were seen at the two-story, red brick colonial on the wooded estate off Route 172 on Wednesday afternoon. A man came out to speak with police, and a woman pulled up into the gravel driveway in a tan Prius and went into the ivy-dappled house.

Helicopters hovered above. Yellow police crime scene tape was strung near a dog cage adjacent to a four-car garage. An elaborate tree house stood on the front lawn.

Mary Kennedy was most recently in the headlines in 2010, when she was arrested by Bedford police and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol. She was headed to a carnival to pick up their children when an officer saw her car jump a curb after being driven erratically, police said at the time.

Mary Kennedy pleaded to the lesser charge of driving while ability impaired in June 2010. It was a chaotic few months for the Bedford woman, with the drunken-driving charge coming just a few days before reports that her husband had filed for divorce.

In May 2010, police were called to the Kennedys' home for a reported domestic dispute involving the couple's children. Mary Kennedy and Robert Kennedy Jr.'s children are between the ages of 9 and 16.

Mary Kennedy was charged later that year with driving under the influence of drugs, but that case was dismissed in July 2011 when a judge said the evidence showed she didn't know the medicine she had taken would impair her ability to drive.

The couple were married on April 15, 1994, on board a research boat on the Hudson River. Robert Kennedy Jr., an attorney, is a staunch environmentalist who has garnered national attention for leading clean-water advocate Hudson Riverkeeper's efforts to restore the Hudson River.