UPDATE: (4/9/20, 10:08 A.M. ET): The body of eight-year-old Gideon McKean was found on April 8, just 2000 feet away from where his mother, Maeve’s body was discovered two days prior, authorities confirmed. The tragic discovery comes six days after the mother and son went missing after launching a canoe into the choppy waters of the Chesapeake Bay to retrieve a lost ball. Both Gideon and Maeve’s bodies were about 2.5 miles away from where they set out in their canoe.
UPDATE: (4/6/20, 9:22 P.M. ET) The body of Maeve was found around 5:31 p.m. on Apr. 6, four days after the search to find her and her missing son, Gideon after their Apr. 2 canoe accident began, authorities said, according to People. The location of her body was about 2.5 miles away from her mother’s waterfront property in Shady Side, Maryland, where she was staying before the accident, Maryland National Resources Police said in a press release obtained by People, and it was found in about 25 feet of water. The search for Gideon will continue on Apr. 7, the outlet further reported.
UPDATE (4/3/2020 @ 11:30 P.M. ET): Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean‘s husband David McKean has confirmed that his wife and 8-year-old son Gideon have passed away. “It has been more than 24 hours, and the chances they have survived are impossibly small. It is clear that Maeve and Gideon have passed away,” David wrote in a lengthy statement shared to Facebook.
Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, 40, has gone missing after a canoe accident, the Kennedy family confirmed to The Washington Post. Officials have been looking for two people who went missing in the Chesapeake Bay since Thursday, April 2, and less than 24 hours later, the Kennedy family revealed that Maeve and her son, Gideon, 8, were the victims of the canoe incident. Here’s more to know about Maeve and what happened:
1. How is she connected to the Kennedy family? Maeve’s mother is Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, who is the daughter of Robert F. Kennedy. Of course, this means that Maeve is one of RFK’s many grandchildren. Maeve has four siblings, Meaghan, Kat and Kerry, and her father is David Lee Townsend.
2. She’s married with three kids. Maeve’s husband is David McKean. They got married in 2009. In addition to Gideon, Maeve and David have two other children: Gabrielle, 7, and Toby, 2.
3. What does she do? Maeve works as an executive director at the Georgetown University Global Health Initiative. Her work is in Washington D.C., which is also where her family lives.
4. She has a law degree. Maeve is a public health and human rights lawyer. She graduated from Georgetown University with a Juris Doctor from Georgetown Law and a master of science degree in international negotiations and conflict resolution from the Walsh School of Foreign Service.
5. What happened in the canoe accident? Officials confirmed that Maeve and Gideon had paddled out in their canoe to retrieve a ball, but were unable to return to shore. Eyewitnesses saw them struggling to paddle back, and then disappear from view. Their canoe was found, overturned, about two hours after they first went missing. One of their paddles was also discovered.