SHADY SIDE, MD — The body of Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, 40, of Washington, D.C., was found off the coast of Shady Side, reports said Monday night. McKean and her eldest son, 8-year-old Gideon Joseph Kennedy McKean, died in a boating mishap on Chesapeake Bay four days ago.
The child’s body has not yet been recovered, said Maryland Natural Resources Police, who will resume the search on Tuesday.
Authorities found Maeve McKean’s body at 5:31 p.m. Monday, submerged 25 feet and about 2.5 miles from her mother’s home in Shady Side, The Baltimore Sun first reported. McKean’s 8-year-old son, Gideon Joseph Kennedy McKean, has not been found. Police said they will resume the search Tuesday.
Searchers have used aviation and underwater imaging sonar technology to look for the bodies, along with members of the Charles County Dive and Rescue Team.
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The mother and son ventured onto the water Thursday and have not been seen since. “The chances they have survived are impossibly small,” wrote David McKean, husband and father, respectively, of the pair on Saturday. “It is clear that Maeve and Gideon have passed away.”
Maeve McKean, is the granddaughter of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and daughter of former Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. The The pair went missing near Herring Bay Thursday evening, according to Maryland Natural Resources Police. Neither McKean nor her son wore a life jacket when they went out in a canoe to try to recover a ball.
“Maeve … was my everything,” her husband shared on Facebook. “She was my best friend and my soulmate. …She was the brightest light I have ever known.”
David McKean said the family was self-quarantining in the empty house owned by Kathleen Townsend on the bay to give their kids more space than at home in DC to run around. Gideon and Maeve were playing kickball by a protected cove behind the house, and one of them kicked the ball into the water. The mother and son got into a canoe and were pushed by wind or tide into the open bay.
About 30 minutes later they were spotted by an onlooker from land, who saw them far out from shore, and called the police. After that they were not seen again. The Coast Guard found their canoe, which was capsized and miles away.
Coast Guard personnel searched a combined total of 3,658 square miles over air, sea, and land over 26 hours.
The couple have two other children, Gabriella and Toby.
Maeve McKean was executive director of the Georgetown University Global Health Initiative.
The former lieutenant governor said in a statement Friday that her daughter will be remembered for her devotion to helping society’s most vulnerable through the Peace Corps and other endeavors. Her grandson she described as a star athlete who loved soccer, golf, and running.
“Maeve was vivid. You always knew when she was in a room. Her laughter was loud, unabashed, and infectious,” Kennedy Townsend said. “She did everything with her full self and her whole heart. She gave the best hugs, sang loudly and out of tune, danced, wrestled, argued, forgave. Maeve shone. The fire emanating from her soul warmed us all. Her husband, David, and their children, Gideon, Gabriella, and Toby, were the great joys of her life. The role she treasured most was mom.”
Gideon loved riddles, math, chess, and adventures, his grandmother said. “He loved to invent new games with his mom and share them with us all. Gideon was a loving and protective big brother.”
The Anne Arundel County Police Department was dispatched to 1500 Robinson Road in Shady Side about 4:30 p.m. Thursday. A 911 caller told the dispatch center that he had seen two people in a small canoe or kayak drifting in Chesapeake Bay. A water rescue assignment was called out, and first responders from the Annapolis Fire Department, Maryland Natural Resources Police, Maryland State Police’s aviation division, U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Cape May, New Jersey, Queen Anne’s County and Calvert County arrived.
When firefighters arrived at the pier, they saw two people in a small vessel believed to be a canoe several miles from the pier drifting south in the Chesapeake Bay. Boats and helicopters began a search of the Chesapeake Bay, the Anne Arundel County Fire Department reported.
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At 7 p.m. Thursday, a canoe and a paddle were recovered east of Rockhold Creek in Deale by the Coast Guard and the fireboat from the City of Annapolis Fire Department. The mother and son were last seen 10 miles south of Annapolis near Herring Bay.