WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told a detective that on the day before his wife hanged herself, she called him to say "everything was her fault."
"She told me that she was sorry for everything. ... She said that I was right about everything," Kennedy said in a statement that was part of a police file released Wednesday.
Kennedy's wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy, hanged herself May 16 in a garage on their Bedford estate. The statement from her husband — son of Sen. Robert Kennedy and nephew of President John Kennedy — was given the next day, the documents show.
Much of the file was blacked out before being released, and it was not clear what Mary Kennedy was referring to by "everything."
When she died, the Kennedys were in the midst of a divorce and custody battle. They have four children.
An autopsy report showed Mary Kennedy had antidepressants in her system.
Her death sparked a battle between Kennedy and his wife's siblings, who tried to take control of her remains and held their own memorial service. Kerry Lawrence, an attorney for the siblings, was on vacation Wednesday and could not be reached for comment, his office said.
In his statement, Kennedy said that during the May 15 phone conversation, his wife "told me that she needed me to take care of her."
He described her as "a great person" and said he'd known her since she was 14.
Kennedy also described a May 16 search for his wife after the housekeeper, sounding "very scared," called him to say she couldn't find her in the house.
After he searched the attic and the shore of a lake, "I heard a lot of screaming coming from the garage," he said. Someone told him not to go inside, but he did and saw his wife.
Kennedy's details of the discovery were blacked out, but other papers in the file show that Mary Kennedy was found in black gym clothes. Three metal crates and a metal ladder were on the floor.
A statement from an unidentified employee says that on May 14, Mary Kennedy asked her "to pray for her, because she got more bad news from her lawyer."
The employee told police she had noticed changes in Mary Kennedy and told Robert Kennedy, "She needs help. Bobby told me that she doesn't want to help herself."
