Mitt Romney’s sister-in-law, Carrie Romney, found dead next to shopping mall

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner has listed her cause of death as “deferred” while toxicology results are currently pending. The local sheriff’s department has said it is conducting a death investigation and is awaiting the medical examiner’s findings.

Between 2016 and 2025, the victim was married to George Scott Romney, 84, who goes by Scott, the oldest brother of Mitt.

“We don’t know if it was suicide or accidental,” LA County Sheriff’s spokesperson Lt Daniel Vizcarra said of the incident. “There is not enough information to go by yet on what the coroner has given us so far.” Her body was discovered around 9:00pm local time.

Scott Romney, a prominent attorney and the father of former Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel.

A 1991 Associated Press report on his divorce from his first wife, whom he married in 1967, noted that she was the author of the book “Giving Time a Chance - The Secret of a Lasting Marriage.”

The couple separated in May this year after eight years of marriage, according to the Daily Mail. Scott Romney reportedly filed for divorce on June 10, citing irreconcilable differences, bringing to an end his third marriage.

The report goes on to note that Carrie was planning to go back to using her maiden name, Carrie Dimas and was seeking spousal support, which he opposed.

He and Carrie were married on November 26, 2016, and had no children together.

Online records show that until January 2025, she had been living in Michigan where her estranged husband resided. Since then, she has been living in Santa Clarita, California.

The couple appears to have preferred to keep their relationship private: neither maintained a social media presence nor gave media interviews post-2012, and they were never photographed in public together, the Mail reports.

“Our family is heartbroken by the loss of Carrie, who brought warmth and love to all our lives. We ask for privacy during this difficult time,” Mitt Romney said in a brief statement on behalf of his family.

The politician served as the governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007 and ran unsuccessfully as the GOP’s presidential nominee in 2012, hoping to deny Democrat Barack Obama a second term in the White House.

He was elected U.S. senator for Utah in 2018 and became known as an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump, voting for his impeachment twice, but left office at the end of his term this January.

An online profile says that Scott Romney now works as a lawyer with Michigan-based firm Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn.

The New York Times reported in 2012 during his brother’s ill-fated run for the White House that Scott Romney was among his most visible supporters. He appeared to disappear from the spotlight in the years that followed.

Scott previously served on the board of Michigan State University, he graduated from the school in 1966, and later graduated from Harvard. In the 1990s, he ran unsuccessfully for Attorney General of Michigan. After that defeat, The Detroit Free Press noted in 2018 that he “never ran for such a high profile job again.”

“Had he won... it would likely givent him a clear path to the governor’s office,” political consultant John Truscott told the newspaper.