Kennedy family members identified as missing boaters in Chesapeake Bay

The missing canoers last seen in Chesapeake Bay Thursday evening have been identified as Robert F. Kennedy’s granddaughter, Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, and her 8-year-old son, Gideon. 

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) made the announcement Friday, saying he “expressed our most heartfelt sympathy and prayers to her and her entire family at this difficult time.”

Townsend McKean’s husband, David McKean, reported his wife and son missing Thursday after the family went canoeing at their waterfront home near Annapolis, Md. He told the Washington Post that his children were playing with a ball until it went into the water, and his wife and their son “popped into a canoe to chase it down. They just got farther out than they could handle and couldn’t get back in.”

On Thursday, a concerned citizen called the Coast Guard saying they saw boaters that were “struggling to return to shore in a canoe,” then not seen again. Maryland Department of Natural Resources police told the Post they found an overturned canoe that matched the description given by McKean. 

McKean told the newspaper the search is still ongoing.

Townsend McKean is the executive director of the Georgetown University Global Health Initiative and the daughter of former Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. She’s also the granddaughter of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and grandniece of former president John F. Kennedy.