Late Saoirse Kennedy Hill Was ‘Victim of a 2007 Abduction Attempt’ at 10 Years Old

Saoirse Kennedy Hill, a granddaughter of Ethel and Robert F. Kennedy, told police she was the victim of an abduction attempt in 2007. Hill died on Thursday at the Kennedy compound in Hyannis, Massachusetts from a suspected drug overdose. She was 22 years old.

Back in August 2007, Barnstable police told WCVB said Hill reported two men driving up to the Kennedy home in a white van. She saw the men as she returned from playing tennis.

The men drove the van along the compound as Hill walked home. A source told WCVB one of the men asked if she wanted a ride, but she ran away instead.

“Two white males, approximately 50 years old according to the witness, were sitting in a white GMC van. As the girl walked by the van, the driver asked her if she needed a ride. The young girl responded, ‘no,’ and just did not feel right about the situation and ran home,” then-Barnstable Police Department Sgt. Mark Mellyn said at the time.

Hill told one of her friends about the incident and her friend told her mother, who told police. Officials said they were investigating, but the culprits were never found.

“We are glad that they called and reported this,” Mellyn told WCVB. “It is something that we would definitely take a look at.”

Hill’s mother, Courtney, the fifth child of RFK and Ethel Kennedy, called police to thank them for their help.

This was one of many tragic events in Hill’s life. In a 2016 essay for the Deerfield Academy school newspaper, Hill revealed she once tried to take her own life and revealed that someone she “knew and loved broke serious sexual boundaries with me.” She said she suffered from depression and mental illness.

“Two weeks before my junior year began, however, my friend came back and planned to stay. My sense of well-being was already compromised, and I totally lost it after someone I knew and loved broke serious sexual boundaries with me. I did the worst thing a victim can do, and I pretended it hadn’t happened. This all became too much, and I attempted to take my own life,” Hill revealed in the emotional essay.

“I returned to school for the fall of my junior year, but I realized that I could not handle the stresses Deerfield presented. I went to treatment for my depression and returned to the valley for my senior year,” she continued.

Hill later enrolled at Boston College, where she was a communication major.

Hill died from a suspected overdose, but this will not be confirmed until a toxicology report is completed, reports the Associated Press.

“Our hearts are shattered by the loss of our beloved Saoirse. Her life was filled with hope, promise and love,” the Kennedy family said in a statement Thursday. “She lit up our lives with her love, her peals of laughter and her generous spirit. Saoirse was passionately moved by the causes of human rights and women’s empowerment and found great joy in volunteer work, working alongside indigenous communities to build schools in Mexico. We will love her and miss her forever.”

Photo credit: Twitter/Kerry Kennedy