Urn a Factor in Kennedy Rape Inquiry : Evidence: Antique turns up after disappearing from mansion. It apparently could be used to verify the alleged victim was there.

The rape controversy involving William Kennedy Smith, a nephew of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), took another bizarre turn Monday as an antique urn that had been missing from Kennedy’s Florida mansion since the alleged incident suddenly turned up.

Palm Beach, Fla., police acknowledged Monday that the urn, which was understood to have been given to them by Anne Mercer, a Palm Beach woman to whom the alleged rape victim turned immediately after the early morning incident, is now “part of the investigation.”

Mercer could not be reached for comment Monday.

A source close to the case said that some Kennedy family photos also are missing from the home. But Craig Gunkel, Palm Beach police spokesman, while acknowledging that the urn has become an element in the inquiry, said that he does not know whether any photographs are missing.

It was not clear Monday whether police believe that the woman who filed the rape complaint against Smith had taken the urn, appraised at more than $1,000, or what her purpose may have been if she did. Under Florida law, the woman’s name is being withheld.

Lawyers for the woman did not return several calls.

Authorities hinted that one possible explanation is that the urn could provide evidence that the woman had been to the guarded Kennedy mansion if others denied her assertion.

Kennedy and his son, Patrick, 24, a Rhode Island legislator, had drinks with Smith at Au Bar, a fashionable Palm Beach night spot, into the early morning of March 30.

The alleged victim told police that she met the Kennedy group at the night spot and accepted the invitation of Smith, 30, to return to the Kennedy mansion.

She charged that Smith later raped her on the beach between 3:30 a.m. and 4:30 a.m on March 30. Police have identified Smith, whose photo was identified by the alleged victim, as a suspect in the case, but have filed no charges. Smith himself has denied wrongdoing.

Gunkel said that it will take police seven to 14 days to analyze blood and hair samples that Smith provided and to compare them with physical evidence collected during the medical examination of the alleged victim. A DNA study could require two months, he added.

Smith, who has returned to his fourth-year studies at Georgetown Medical School, has declined to talk with Palm Beach detectives on the advice of his lawyers, police said.

But a source close to Smith said that he may be willing to give a statement after his attorneys and investigators complete an inquiry into the incident.

Kennedy and his son provided statements to Palm Beach police over the weekend, and have been told that they are not suspects, the senator’s spokesman said. No request was made for their hair or blood samples.

Part of the confusion in the still-developing case stems from interviews given by Michele Cassone, 27, a waitress at a Palm Beach restaurant, who said that she was at both Au Bar and the Kennedy mansion during the hours of the incident.

Cassone, who said that she was invited to the home by Patrick Kennedy, said in initial interviews that she did not see Smith or the alleged victim at the Kennedy home or on the grounds.

Later, however, Cassone said that she saw a naked woman run into the surf but that she was unable to identify her.

Cassone also said that Ted Kennedy appeared in the house, wearing only an oxford shirt and no pants. Later, she said the shirt came below his knees and that he may have been wearing shorts or underwear beneath it.