Body of Kathleen Kennedy Townsend’s daughter recovered
ANNAPOLIS,
Md. (AP) — The body of the daughter of former Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy
Townsend was located in about 25 feet of water and recovered,
authorities said Monday, and they will keep searching for her son, after
the two went missing following a canoeing accident last week.
The
body of Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, 40, was located by Charles
County Dive and Rescue and recovered about 2.5 miles south of her
mother’s residence in Shady Side, Maryland, where the canoe was
launched, Maryland Natural Resources Police said. The recovery came
after a days-long search that involved aviation and underwater imaging
sonar technology.
Maeve McKean’s husband, David, in a Facebook
post Friday said their family was self-quarantining in an empty house
owned by his wife’s mother hoping to give their kids more space to run
around than they had at their home in Washington, D.C.
Authorities
say they will resume searching Tuesday for her son, 8-year-old Gideon
McKean. The search started 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.
David McKean, who said he was
heartbroken to even have to try to explain who his son was, described
him as an old man. “He might as well have been 38,” he said in his post.
“He was deeply compassionate, declining to sing children’s songs if
they contained a hint of animals or people being treated cruelly.”
He
said he used to marvel at his son as a toddler, thinking he was too
perfect to exist in this world. “It seems to me now that he was,” McKean
said.
He described his wife as his best friend and soulmate whose laugh you could hear a block away.
“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.
“She was the brightest light I have ever known.”
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 honor the hope, energy and passion
that Maeve and Gideon set forth into the world.”