The sister-in-law of former U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney left a handwritten "suicide note" in the last pages of the Book of Mormon beforeshe killed herselflast year, a Los Angeles County coroner's report revealed.
The report did not divulge what Carrie Elizabeth Romney wrote in the note, which was found in a text that is considered sacred by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that she had left on the front passenger seat of her vehicle and underneath her purse.
But an autopsy of the the 64-year-old woman found she had anti-anxiety medication in her system, and her husband told investigators that two years earlier she "had driven her car off a cliff" and "had made comments about not wanting to go on."
The report — completed in December and obtained by NBC News on Thursday — comes after the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Departmentconcluded that Carrie Romney's death on Oct. 10 was a suicide,caused by blunt-force injuries after falling from a parking garage.
Carrie Romney had been separated since May 25 from Romney's brother, George Scott Romney, according to a Los Angeles County divorce petition filed June 10.
Her husband, who is not named in the report, told investigators that on the day his wife died he reported her missing to the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department after she left home at 12:30 p.m. "to run errands" and hadn't returned.
But at 7:10 p.m. that day, Carrie Romney parked her vehicle on the top level of a five-story parking garage in the Valencia section of Santa Clarita, an LA suburb, and was seen on surveillance footage — and by a witness — "pacing" and "looking over the edge of the parapet," the report states.
At 8:23 p.m., according to the report, "she is seen to be sitting on top of the parapet, facing the rear of a utility truck with her back towards the sheer side."
Three minutes later, her body hit "the ground."
"Fell backwards from a seated position on a parking structure rooftop parapet," the report states.
Representatives for Mitt Romney, who represented Utah in the U.S. Senate from 2019 to 2025 and was the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But he released a statement shortly after his sister-in-law died.
"Our family is heartbroken by the loss of Carrie, who brought warmth and love to all our lives," he said.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 or go to988lifeline.orgto reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. You can also call the network, previously known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, at800-273-8255or visitSpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources.
