Tragedy continues to hound the Kennedy clans as rescue workers have recovered the body of Maeve Kennedy McKean, granddaughter of former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy.
The BBC reports that rescuers had found the 40-year-old Kennedy’s body about four kilometers away from where she and her eight-year-old son Gideon had set off on a canoe.
Quoting a Facebook post from Kennedy’s husband David McKean, WBRZ says Kennedy and her son had got on a canoe simply to retrieve a ball that had landed into nearby water. However, it appears that the wind had instead sent them out to the Chesapeake Bay.
This happened on Thursday evening. In the search for Kennedy and her son, searchers utilized helicopters, boats, and even underwater sonar technology. Even with all the resources allocated, Kennedy’s body was only found on Monday. Gideon’s body is yet to be found.
Aside from being a granddaughter of assassinated presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Maeve was also the daughter of former Maryland lieutenant governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. Maeve was the executive director of Georgetown University’s Global Health Initiative and was also a health and human rights lawyer.
Her family members voiced their grief at the news of her death. In a statement, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend said her heart is “crushed.” She says she can only hope to have the strength to honor Maeve and Gideon’s “hope, energy, and passion.”
Representative Jow Kennedy III, Maeve’s cousin, said that their family “has lost two of the brightest lights.” He also called on everyone to hold their loved ones tight.
McKean, in a Facebook post, remembered his wife as “everything.” He described his son as “deeply compassionate” and “brave.” McKean said he is “heartbroken” just trying to sum up his son, remembering that he used to think Gideon was “too perfect to exist in this world.”
The Kennedy political dynasty has had to deal with a series of tragedies over the past few decades. Five years before Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1968, his brother John F. Kennedy was also shot in Dallas, Texas by Lee Harvey Oswald.
John F. Kennedy’s son, John F. Kennedy Jr., died in a plane crash back in 1999. In the plane with him was his wife, Carolyn, and his sister-in-law, Lauren.
This series of misfortunes has resulted in the term “The Kennedy Curse,” which is believed to strike the descendants of Kennedy patriarch, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. Twelve deaths in the Kennedy family have been attributed to the curse.