Carrie Elizabeth Romney, the sister-in-law of former presidential nominee and former Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, was found dead Friday evening on a street in Valencia, California, according to officials and media reports.
Romney, 64, was discovered near a shopping mall parking garage around 8:30 p.m., TMZ reported.
The Los Angeles County coroner’s office confirmed that an investigation is underway. The cause and manner of death have not yet been determined.
It’s “unknown at the moment” if Carrie “jumped or fell” from the multi-story parking garage or a nearby building, Los Angeles County Deputy Brenda Serna wrote in an email to the New York Post.
Sen. Mitt Romney, a Republican, ran against former President Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election, mounting a competitive campaign that ultimately fell short. He had previously sought the Republican nomination in 2008 but lost the primary race to the late Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
During his tenure in the Senate, Romney was the only Republican to vote to convict President Donald Trump during his first impeachment trial in 2020, The Post noted.
He cast the same vote during Trump’s second impeachment trial the following year.
Romney has long been a vocal critic of the former president. In 2019, he published an op-ed pledging to oppose what he described as Trump’s “destructive statements” made under the authority of the White House.
Romney used his farewell address to the U.S. Senate in December of last year to urge other lawmakers to put unity first in the face of stubborn partisanship.