Granddaughter of Robert F. Kennedy found dead near Chesapeake Bay

The search for her son Gideon will continue Tuesday, though authorities presume that he is dead.

APRIL 7, 2020 07:49

Robert F. Kennedy (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons) — Robert F. Kennedy

(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Maryland police found the body of Maeve Kennedy McKean, 40, granddaughter of Robert F. Kennedy, Monday, four days after she and her eight-year old son Gideon went missing in a canoe on the Chesapeake Bay, according to multiple media reports.

The search for her son Gideon will continue Tuesday, though authorities presume that he is dead.

The mother and son were last seen sailing in a canoe on the Chesapeake Bay, off the coast of Maryland, before their disappearance.

The two were last seen in the Anne Arundel County region of the Chesapeake Bay at around 4:30 p.m., slowly sailing away from shore. Water search and rescue protocol was enacted when a patron at Columbia Beach community pier in Shady Side, Maryland called 911, alerting them that the pair was slowly drifting out to sea with high currents impeding their return back to shore.

Maeve Kennedy McKean is the daughter of former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and the granddaughter of Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated while a candidate for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in 1968. Robert is the brother of the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy.

"I reached out to and spoke with Lieutenant Governor Townsend this morning and on behalf of the people of Maryland I expressed our most heartfelt sympathies," Hogan said in a briefing posted online.

The Anne Arundel County Fire Department, one of the agencies that were involved in the search for Townsend and her son, said it had received a call on Thursday at about 4:30 p.m. local time, reporting that two people in a small canoe or kayak were drifting off into the Chesapeake Bay.

Charles County Dive and Rescue, one of the agencies searching for them, located Townsend's body in about 25 feet of water, 2.5 miles (4 km) south of her mother's residence in Shady Side, Maryland, where the canoe was launched.

"Currents were pretty fast; they moved out of sight pretty quickly," Anne Arundel fire captain Erik Kornmeyer said, adding that the rescue team was in the area within five minutes of the 911 call, but were unable to reach or locate the victims in time.

The Coast Guard called off their search Friday night after two days of probing the surrounding Chesapeake waters, according to CBS. The rescue team found an overturned canoe and paddle - not the missing people - in the approximate location of their disappearance, matching the description of the watercraft given to emergency officials during the 911 call.

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Reuters contributed to this report.