In 1979, a seventeen year old boy, Scott Cantrell, shot himself in the head in Pallenberg's bed with a gun owned by Keith Richards, in the home shared by Richards and Pallenberg in South Salem, New York. The youth had been employed as a part-time groundskeeper at the estate and was involved with Pallenberg in an intimate relationship. Richards was in Paris recording with the Rolling Stones, but his son was present in the home when the teenager killed himself. Pallenberg was arrested but the death was ruled as a suicide in 1980, despite rumours that Pallenberg and Cantrell had been playing a game of Russian Roulette with the gun. The police investigation confirmed that Pallenberg was not in the room or on the same floor of the home when the fatal shot was fired.