Body of second Kennedy family member is recovered

The body of an 8-year-old grandson of former Lt.-Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend of Maryland who went missing with his mother in a canoe last week was recovered in the Chesapeake Bay on Wednesday, two days after his mother’s body was found, authorities said.

The Maryland Natural Resources Police said that the body of the grandson, Gideon McKean, was found 2,000 feet from where the body of his mother, Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, a granddaughter of Robert F. Kennedy, was recovered Monday.

Gideon’s body was found in 25 feet of water, over 2 miles south of his grandmother’s home in Shady Side, Maryland, south of Annapolis, police said.

The two disappeared Thursday afternoon after McKean and Gideon set off in a canoe from that property to recover a ball and drifted into the bay, according to the family and the police.

“They got into a canoe, intending simply to retrieve the ball, and somehow got pushed by wind or tide into the open bay,” David McKean, Gideon’s father and Maeve McKean’s husband, explained in a Facebook post Friday.

A concerned citizen noticed the mother and son drifting away in the canoe and called 911 around 4:30 p.m., according to the Anne Arundel County Fire Department.

“After that last sighting, they were not seen again,” David McKean said.

There were up to 3-foot waves and 29 mph winds in the bay when the mother and son disappeared, according to the Coast Guard.

On Monday, in a video, Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy III of Massachusetts remembered his cousin, McKean, as “an extraordinary mom.”

“Maeve was my cousin closest in age who I looked up to,” Kennedy said, adding that she was “an incredibly vibrant young woman.”