Body of Robert F. Kennedy's Granddaughter Found 4 Days After Disappearance
The body of Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, a granddaughter of former Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, was found Monday evening in the Chesapeake Bay.
Her body was found in 25 feet of water, about 2.5 miles from the place she went missing in Shady Side, Maryland, south of Annapolis, the Maryland Natural Resources Police said in a statement, according to CNN.
“After a days-long search that involved aviation and underwater imaging solar technology, authorities recovered missing person, Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, on April 6 at approximately 5:31 pm,” the police said in a statement, according to CBS News.
The search for her 8-year-old son, Gideon, will resume Tuesday, officials said.
#BREAKING: Officials have located the body of Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, the daughter of Maryland’s former lieutenant governor who went missing after paddling a canoe into the waters off the Chesapeake Bay last week https://t.co/3u3KIYU3HE
— WJZ | CBS Baltimore (@wjz) April 7, 2020
McKean, 40, was with her family at the Shady Side home of her mother, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, who is the daughter of Robert F. Kennedy and a former lieutenant governor of Maryland.
On Thursday, McKean and her son had gotten into the canoe to retrieve a ball that had been kicked into the water.
Officials believe that strong winds and heavy seas prevented McKean and her son from returning to shore.
Anne Arundel County Fire Capt. Erik Kornmeyer said that despite arriving within five minutes of a call from an onlooker who reported the canoe appeared to be in trouble, they could not reach the boat.
“Currents were pretty fast, they moved out of sight pretty quickly,” he said, adding that conditions were “rough and windy” Thursday night.
The overturned canoe was found Friday.
McKean’s husband, David McKean, wrote about his family on his Facebook page.
“Gideon was 8, but he may as well have been 38. He was deeply compassionate, declining to sing children’s songs if they contained a hint of animals or people being treated cruelly. He hated if I accidently let a bad word slip. He spent hours upstairs reading, learning everything he could about sports, and trying to decipher the mysteries of the stock market. But he was also incredibly social, athletic, and courageous,” he wrote.
“And he was brave, leading his friends in games, standing up to people who he thought were wrong (including his parents), and relishing opportunities to go on adventures with friends, even those he’d just met. It is impossible to sum up Gideon here. I am heartbroken to even have to try. I used to marvel at him as a toddler and worry that he was too perfect to exist in this world. It seems to me now that he was,” McKean wrote.
He described his late wife as “my everything. She was my best friend and my soulmate.”
“I have already thought many times over today that I need to remember to tell Maeve about something that’s happening. I am terrified by the idea that this will fade over time. You could hear Maeve’s laugh a block away — and she laughed a lot. She was magical — with endless energy that she would put toward inventing games for our children, taking on another project at work or in our community, and spending time with our friends,” McKean wrote, adding, “She was the brightest light I have ever known.
He also touched on the couple’s other children.
“At seven, Gabriella is heartbroken, but she amazes me with her maturity and grace. Toby is two-and-a-half, so he’s still his usual magical and goofy self. I know soon he will start to ask for Maeve and Gideon. It breaks my heart that he will not get to have them as a mother and brother,” he wrote.
Maeve McKean served as the executive director of Georgetown University’s Global Health Initiative. She was an adjunct professor at the university, teaching bioethics and human rights.
The tragedy was the most recent to strike the star-crossed Kennedy family. In August 2019, Saoirse Kennedy Hill, 22, died of what was ruled to be an accidental overdose at the family’s compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, according to The Washington Post.
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