Robert F. Kennedy’s granddaughter, 40, and son, 8, are missing and feared dead after paddling out to sea in canoe – The Sun

ROBERT F. Kennedy's granddaughter and her eight-year-old son are missing and feared dead after they tried to retrieve a lost ball from a bay in a canoe.

Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, 40, and her son Gideon, have yet to be found, after police spent the night searching the Chesapeake Bay area in Maryland.

Governor Larry Hogan offered his sympathies to the family at a press conference on Friday.

Maeve and Gideon were kicking a ball near the water, when it went into the water, her husband David McKean said.

The duo went out in a canoe to retrieve it, but "got farther out then they could handle, and couldn’t get back in," McKean told The Washington Post.

A statement from Maryland's Department of Natural Resources Police shared by Hogan's spokesperson said police responded just before 5 p.m. to a call of two people who "appeared to have be overtaken by the strong winds" in the Chesapeake Bay.

"The preliminary investigation revealed that the pair may have been paddling the canoe from a residence in Shady Side, MD out into the Bay to retrieve a ball and were unable to paddle back to shore," the statement said.

Authorities were still searching for the duo on Friday morning.

David would not confirm to the Washington Post whether the canoe was found.

Maryland's DNR Police on Friday that a canoe matching the description of the one the mother and son used had been found, however.

"At approximately 7:00 p.m., an overturned canoe, matching the approximate description of the one which the pair were in, was located," a statement said.

Just an hour after the statement was shared, Hogan announced Maeve and Gideon had drowned.

The tragedy is the latest to befall the prominent family – with some believing they are the victims of a 'Kennedy curse."

As the closest thing America has to a royal family, the Kennedy's have been faced with decades of tragedy – leading

Edward Kennedy, John and Robert's brother, to himself debate if there is a family 'curse.'

Maeve and Gideon's disappearance comes just months after the Kennedy Family mourned the death of 22-year-old Saoirse Kennedy Hill, who died of a suspected drug overdose.

The 'Kennedy curse' led four of Edward's eight siblings – half of Joseph and Rose Kennedy's kids – to suffer violent deaths.

The most famous was the assassination of John F. Kennedy during his presidency.

"JFK" died when he was just 46 on November 22, 1963 during a visit to Dallas, Texas, after he was shot in his back while riding alongside his wife, Jackie in a convertible.

Joseph Jr, was killed while serving as a pilot bomber in August 1944, during World War II.

Then in 1948, their second eldest daughter, Kathleen, died in a plane crash in the south of France, aged just 28.

Robert 'Bobby' Kennedy, died in 1968 when he too, was assassinated during his campaign to become the Democratic presidential nominee.

When he was just 38, John F. Kennedy Jr. died in a plane crash.

John Jr.'s wife Carolyn and sister-in-law Lauren tragically died in the accident with him.

Edward's brother David Kennedy died when he was 28 of a drug overdose in 1984.

Michael, David's son, died nearly a decade later in the mountains of Aspen, Colorado while playing football in his skis.

Kara, Edward's daughter, died of a heart attack at age 51 in 2011.

Saorsie, Joseph and Rose's Granddaughter, died this past August, just eight months ago.

Maeve shared a sweet picture of Gideon listening to an interview with Steph Curry and Coronavirus expert Dr. Anthony Fauci just last week.

"@StephenCurry30 and Dr. Fauci's very informative interview was part of my 8-year old son's homeschooling today!" Maeve tweeted, with a happy Gideon smiling and holding a phone.

Maeve – who worked as the executive director of Georgetown University’s Global Health Initiative – penned an open letter published in Politico last year, denouncing her uncle Robert F. Kennedy's anti-vaccination crusade.

She wrote the letter alongside her mother Kathleen, who is the former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, and her cousin Joseph P. Kennedy.

"We love Bobby. He is one of the great champions of the environment," the letter said.

"We stand behind him in his ongoing fight to protect our environment. However, on vaccines he is wrong," the letter continued.

The letter added: "He has helped to spread dangerous misinformation over social media and is complicit in sowing distrust of the science behind vaccines."

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