After a canoe accident in the Kennedy family: Another body recovered

The crashed Kennedy family. Image: AP

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Almost a week after members of the Kennedy clan in the United States had a canoe accident, emergency services recovered the body of the missing boy. After searching for days, the lifeless body of eight-year-old Gideon McKean was found in the water on Wednesday – around 600 meters from the site of his mother’s body, the police in charge in the US state of Maryland said.

Gideon was the son of US Senator Robert F. Kennedy’s granddaughter, Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean. Mother and son have been missing since a canoe accident last Thursday. The body of the 40-year-old was recovered on Monday. The search under water was supported from the air, as the police said.

The McKeans, who are part of the legendary Kennedy family in the United States, had occasionally traveled to a family home on Chesapeake Bay – a bay that flows into the Atlantic Ocean – from the capital Washington due to the corona pandemic. According to McKean’s husband David, the children should have more space there.

The mother and son did not return to the family property on Thursday after trying to get a ball out of the bay in a canoe.

The Kennedy clan has seen several tragic incidents over the years. Numerous members of the politician dynasty died prematurely. McKean’s grandfather Robert “Bobby” Kennedy (1925-1968) was assassinated during the presidential campaign in Los Angeles in 1968. Five years earlier, his older brother and then President John F. Kennedy had been murdered while driving through Dallas, Texas.

In July 1999, President John F. Kennedy Junior, his wife Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and their sister Lauren Bessette died in a plane crash off the east coast of the United States. (sda / dpa)