Maeve Kennedy McKean and her son feared dead in boating tragedy after search called off
Authorities have recovered the body of an 8-year-old Kennedy family relative, days after the boy’s mother was found dead in a canoeing accident.
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Authorities have recovered the body of an 8-year-old Kennedy family relative, days after the boy’s mother was found dead in a lake tragedy.
The body of Gideon McKean – the grandson of former Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend – was located in the water after a canoeing accident in Shady Side, Maryland.
His mother Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, 40, was found dead on Monday about 600m from where the boy’s body was recovered, police said.
The search for the missing mother and son lasted five days and included the use of underwater imaging sonar technology.
The search started on Thursday after authorities responded to a report of two people on a canoe in the Chesapeake Bay who appeared to be overtaken by strong winds.
Maeve McKean’s husband, David, said in a Facebook post that their family had been self-quarantining in an empty house owned by his wife’s mother to give their kids more space than what they had at their home in Washington, D.C.
Maeve McKean, a public health and human rights lawyer, served as executive director of the Georgetown University Global Health Initiative.
The initiative’s website says her work focused on “the intersection of global health and human rights.” McKean previously served as an associate research professor at the City University of New York School of Public Health.
Kennedy Townsend, who served two terms as Maryland’s lieutenant governor, is the eldest daughter of the late U.S. Attorney-General and U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and niece of the late President John F. Kennedy.
“Our Maeve dedicated her life to society’s most vulnerable,” Kennedy Townsend said in a statement Friday night, adding that her grandson Gideon was a “loving” big brother who excelled at sports, riddles, math and chess.
“My heart is crushed, yet we shall try to summon the grace of God and what strength we have to honour the hope, energy and passion that Maeve and Gideon set forth into the world,” Kennedy Townsend said.
“My family thanks all for the outpouring of love and prayers as we grieve and try to bear.”
Mr McKean had told The Washington Post his wife and son “popped into a canoe to chase it down.
They just got farther out than they could handle and couldn’t get back in.”
A spokesman for the US Coast Guard said the wind in that part of the bay was at 26 knots — about 50 km/h — Thursday afternoon, with waves up to a metre high.
Maeve and Gideon went out in the canoe to chase a ball, but “got farther out then they could handle, and couldn’t get back in,” Mr McKean said.
“The preliminary investigation revealed that the pair may have been paddling the canoe from a residence in Shady Side, MD out into the Bay to retrieve a ball and were unable to paddle back to shore,” a statement said.
The death of the pair is being seen by some as a continuation of the so-called Kennedy curse, with many members of the family dying in tragic circumstances.
Maeve and Gideon’s disappearance come just months after the Kennedy family mourned the death of 22-year-old Saoirse Kennedy Hill, who died of a suspected drug overdose.
The ‘Kennedy curse’ led half of Joseph and Rose Kennedy’s kids to suffer violent deaths, the most famous being the assassination of John F. Kennedy during his presidency.
“JFK” died when he was just 46 on November 22, 1963 during a visit to Dallas, Texas, after he was shot in his back while riding alongside his wife, Jackie in a convertible.
Joseph Jr, was killed while serving as a pilot bomber in August 1944, during World War II.
Then in 1948, their second eldest daughter, Kathleen, died in a plane crash in the south of France, aged just 28.
Robert ‘Bobby’ Kennedy, died in 1968 when he too, was assassinated during his campaign to become the Democratic presidential nominee.
When he was just 38, John F. Kennedy Jr. died in a plane crash.
Originally published as Maeve Kennedy McKean and her son feared dead in boating tragedy after search called off