The body of RFK Jr.’s estranged wife was exhumed from her not-so-final resting place and reburied without the necessary permits, Massachusetts officials revealed. The strange decision to relocate Mary Richardson Kennedy provide the latest bit of stress between her family and her powerful in-laws — a rift that began mere hours after her body was found on May 16. Click below to read the rest of the story.
Kennedy was discovered hanging in a barn at her Bedford home around 1:30 p.m. — but not by her husband and housekeeper, as first reported.
The suicide victim was instead found by her Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor, according to a report by the Westchester County Medical Examiner.
Kennedy was last seen nearly 24 hours earlier.
At 6:30 p.m.n that evening, her brother Tom contacted the ME’s office insisting the Richardson family would handle the funeral arrangements.
“The Kennedy family is not to be in involved in removal or arrangements,†read a handwritten notation on the death report.
Ten minutes later, another note indicated that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had his assistant call to say that he was making the arrangements for Mary’s funeral.
In Massachusetts, Barnstable Town Clerk Linda Hutchenrider told the Daily News that no paperwork was filed before last week’s exhumation of the body laid to rest just seven weeks earlier.
“When you deposit a body in Massachusetts, you need a permit,†said Hutchenrider. “And if the body is moved, you need another permit — even if it’s in the same cemetery.â€
Mary Richardson Kennedy was moved about 700 feet from her original grave near Eunice and Sargent Shriver — RFK Jr.’s aunt and uncle — to a lonely hillside on the opposite end of St. Francis Xavier Cemetery.
Her family members were unaware of the relocation until they were told about the exhumation by the Daily News.
