Investigators Probing Suicide of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Estranged Wife

The family of Mary Richardson Kennedy, the estranged wife of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who was found dead on May 16 apparently due to suicide, has hired investigators to examine many “unanswered questions” about her death. They may also file a wrongful death lawsuit against Robert Kennedy Jr.

Mary Richardson Kennedy was found hanged in a barn on the couple’s Westchester estate, and the official cause of death was “asphyxiation due to hanging.”

Sources told the New York Post that Mary’s family was in the process of “pursuing a wrongful-death action” and had many “concerns” about the crime scene.

Investigators hired by Mary’s family want to know whether Mary was a sailor, “capable of tying a nautical knot for the noose,” or “could have climbed up to a 12-foot beam to tie the rope she used to hang herself in the garage.”

Gary Fishman, a former Manhattan assistant district attorney who tried murder cases, is leading the investigation. The focus is on whether there was a “platform she could stand on” and if there are any receipts for the purchase of a rope or if any ropes were stored in the barn.

Investigators are also looking into “establishing Bobby’s activities and whereabouts in the days preceding Mary’s death.”

The Kennedy family has been associated with many suspicious deaths in the past. The most infamous of which was Mary Jo Kopechne’s death at Chappaquiddick. Kopechne was a passenger in the car of the the late Sen. Ted Kennedy when Kennedy drove the car over a bridge. Kennedy escaped the accident but left Kopechne to die. Reports have found that Kopechne may have struggled for up to five hours trying to escape from the upside down Oldsmobile that had been submerged in water before dying.