Gideon McKean, the great-grandson of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, died of drowning complicated by hypothermia, the Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said. USA Today confirmed with the Maryland Department of Health, which oversees the medical examiner’s office, that the 8-year-old’s death was determined to be accidental. The news follows last week’s ruling by the office that the cause of death for Gideon’s mother, Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, was also accidental drowning.
The mother and son were in a canoe on the choppy waters of the Chesapeake Bay attempting to retrieve a ball when their boat disappeared on April 2. An onlooker called 911, but the two were never seen alive again. Three days later, McKean’s body was found about 2 miles south of her mother’s Maryland residence, where the family had relocated during social distancing efforts amid the coronavirus pandemic. Two days after that, Gideon’s body was found where the canoe was launched, about 2,000 feet from where his mother’s body had been found. Police believe strong winds and heavy seas prevented McKean and Gideon from paddling back to shore that day.
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At that time, a lawyer released a statement from Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, McKean’s mother and Maryland’s former lieutenant governor. “On behalf of our family, I want to share our heartfelt gratitude to Governor Hogan, Secretary Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio, and the team of more than 50 professionals from the Department of Natural Resources, Anne Arundel, Charles County, and the State Police, who spent these last days searching for our fierce and loving Maeve and Gideon. They have helped us bring some closure to this terrible loss, and our family will always be grateful for their tireless work,” Kennedy Townsend said.
McKean, 40, was the daughter of David Lee Townsend and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, who is the eldest of the 11 children of Robert F. and Ethel Kennedy. McKean’s great uncle was President John F. Kennedy. Maeve McKean was a lawyer and the executive director of the Georgetown University Global Health Initiative. She taught bioethics and human rights as an adjunct professor. In addition to Gideon, she shared two other children with husband David McKean, a Washington human rights lawyer. The family lives in Washington, but were self-isolating at Kennedy Townsend’s home due to the pandemic.
McKean’s cousin, Tim Shriver — the nephew of President Kennedy — told PEOPLE that the family held a virtual memorial for McKean and Gideon. “I think we have the benefit of as strong a family as there could possibly be,” he said, noting more than 120 family members gathered remotely earlier this month to mourn in the virtual memorial amid the COVID-19 pandemic. “I wish we could say it was enough,” he said. “It’s enough to give us strength, but it’s not enough to end the pain.”
“We’re just trying to let her fill us up now,” Shriver said. “We have great faith, and most of us navigate that faith through our tradition and through our shared sense of being held by a force much bigger than us. And it’s difficult, but I think we’re lucky that we’ve been given — through our parents’ generation and our grandparents’ generation — a kind of strength in the face of adversity that sustains us.”
