Newly released documents show that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told police that on the day before his wife hanged herself, she told him 'everything was her fault.'
Papers released Wednesday by the Bedford Police Department in New York include a statement Mr Kennedy gave a detective after Mary Kennedy's body was discovered after she killed herself on May 16.
Kennedy said that his wife called him on May 15.
‘She told me she was sorry for everything. She said I was right about everything, and everything was her fault. She then told me she needed me to take care of her,’ he reportedly told Bedford police.
Much of the statement was blacked out so that it could not be read publicly before it was released.
The visible portion does not make clear what Mary Kennedy meant by 'everything.'
A day after RFK Jr. rebuffed Mary’s desperate plea for his help, she was found hanged in their barn.
The New York Daily News reports that the caretaker on the property told police that RFK said to her that he could not do anything to help Mary because ‘she doesn’t want to help herself.’
The Kennedys, who had four children, were in the midst of a divorce when she died.
In the court documents, Kennedy also describes his first sight of his wife's body, but the specifics were blacked out.
The police documents include transcriptions of their conversations with the unidentified caretaker, who said that in the days and weeks leading up to the suicide, she became increasingly concerned about Mary’s well-being and went so far as to call Bobby, one of the direct members of the famed Kennedy clan, who had been spending the majority of his time on the West Coast.
‘I noticed some changes in Mary. I thought something was wrong with her. I told Bobby about her, and I told him that she needs help,’ the caretaker reportedly told police,
Among those changes were a resigned attitude and schedule changes- instead of waking up and going to the gym, Mary began spending mornings ‘staying in bed by herself’.
At one point, Mary ‘asked me to pray for her, because she got more bad news from her lawyer’.
After her death, family members and friends publicly acknowledged that Mary had a long history of depression and alcohol issues, revealing her participation in Alcoholics Anonymous.
In spite of his initial rejection of her plea for help, Bobby told police that he called Mary's AA sponsor, named Shannon White. Ms White was also interviewed by police and her story matches that of Bobby's.
The sponsor was the one to find Mary's body hanging in the barn that afternoon.
Bobby called Ms White on the morning of May 16 describing the couple's conversation the night before and asking Ms White to check on Mary because 'he was worried that something had happened to Mary and that she may have hurt herself'.
Ms White said that she too received an unusual call from Mary the night before, saying that she was upset after her phone call with Bobby. She added that the call was particularly surprising because she had noted how well Mary had been doing in AA in recent months.
The Journal News reports that records show that there was confusion and fear among those closest to Mary on the morning of May 16.
Police released the fact that there was a phone call placed from the Bedford estate to Bobby's residence at 7.51am that morning. It appears to have gone unanswered.
The caretaker called Bobby that morning, saying that she had searched the house and could not find Mary, prompting her to worry.
Bobby then called Ms White, saying that he too was concerned.
'Robert said he was going to look for Mary and I said I would look as well,' Ms White told police.
Initial reports conflict over whether it was Ms White or the caretaker who first found the body, but The Journal News reports that it was Ms White who found Mary's body hanging in the barn on the compound that afternoon.
An autopsy report showed she had antidepressants in her system when she died.
The police reports cite an unidentified family friend who says that Bobby called them asking for advice on how to tell his children that Mary had killed herself.
'I suggested telling them himself and gathering people around him who are supportive. I also suggested he clear his calendar to be with them. He said maybe he should take them away somewhere … I said they may need to be close by their mother’s things for a bit,' the person said in the report.
They added that Bobby also asked police separately for advice on how to tell the four children, who ranged in age from 11 years old to 17 years old at the time. None of the children were at the home on the day of the death.
A judge says he'll likely approve a request from the couple's 18-year-old son Conor, who has recently been photographed romancing country star Taylor Swift, to be named administrator of his mother's estate.
Conor Kennedy's lawyer said in Surrogate's Court in White Plains, N.Y. that his client just recently turned 18, qualifying him to administer the estate of Mary Kennedy.
A lawyer for Robert Kennedy raised no objection. The judge said he expects to grant Conor Kennedy's application.
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