Tragedy struck Valencia, California, with a heartbreaking twist that reads like a somber novel, as Carrie Elizabeth Romney, the estranged wife of George Scott Romney—Mitt Romney’s older brother—was found dead at the base of a parking garage.
The story unfolds with a messy divorce filing in June, a marriage of just over eight years crumbling, and a mysterious death on a Friday night in a quiet town 35 miles north of downtown Los Angeles, leaving investigators puzzled and a family in mourning.
The New York Post reported that George Scott Romney, 81, and Carrie, 64, had been together since 2012, living in a $725,000 condo in Valencia, but their union hit a wall in May when they split, with George filing for divorce the next month, citing irreconcilable differences.
In the court documents, George pushed to block any spousal support for either side, a move that raises eyebrows when you consider the progressive obsession with "fairness" often ignores the realities of personal responsibility in broken marriages.
Carrie, not backing down, countered with her own filings, asking for alimony and for George to cover the legal fees, while also seeking to reclaim her former last name, Dimas, as if shedding the Romney name was a final act of independence.
Neighbors noted Carrie had been around the condo recently, yet George claimed in filings they shared no property to divide—a curious statement for a couple who apparently cohabited for years.
Fast forward to that fateful Friday night, when Carrie’s body was discovered at the bottom of a parking structure in Valencia, leaving authorities to grapple with whether she fell accidentally or took a tragic leap.
The LA County medical examiner has deferred a ruling on the cause of death as of Tuesday evening, and police have ruled out foul play, though clarity remains elusive for a case steeped in sorrow.
“She was quiet. Very nice,” a neighbor told The Post, a simple tribute that cuts through the legal noise, reminding us that a real person, not just a court case, is at the heart of this story.
Mitt Romney, the well-known former senator and presidential candidate who lost to Barack Obama in 2012, spoke out on the loss, saying, “Our family is heartbroken by the loss of Carrie, who brought warmth and love to all our lives,” as reported to People.
“We ask for privacy during this difficult time,” he added, a plea that deserves respect even if the public eye often lingers on prominent families like the Romneys, whose patriarch, George W. Romney, was a Michigan governor and Nixon cabinet member.
George Scott Romney himself, a longtime corporate lawyer in Michigan with past political ambitions, including a failed bid for the state’s attorney general nomination in 1998, was spotted Tuesday walking the neighborhood with a hood pulled tight during a rare Southern California rain, as if shielding himself from more than just the weather.
The divorce, which would have been George’s third, was still unresolved at the time of Carrie’s death, with both sides agreeing to mediate property and support issues, though Carrie’s financial past included a 2001 Chapter 7 bankruptcy with a former spouse.
With no children shared between them—though both have grown children from prior marriages, including George’s daughter Ronna McDaniel, former Republican National Committee chair—the personal stakes were high, but the public ramifications are minimal, except as a cautionary tale against the cultural decay of marriage in modern times.
As investigators piece together Carrie’s final moments, and a family grieves under the shadow of an unfinished legal battle, one can’t help but wonder if our society’s obsession with individual “freedom” over commitment played a silent role in this tragedy, though answers, like justice, remain just out of reach.