THE BODY OF the 8-year-old great-grandson to Robert F. Kennedy has been recovered after he and his mother went missing during a canoe trip, the New York Times has reported. 

The Kennedy family confirmed over the weekend that the search for Maeve Kennedy McKean – the daughter of Kathleen Kennedy Townsend who is the eldest daughter of Robert F Kennedy – and Maeve’s son Gideon, was being treated as a recovery mission.

On Tuesday, the body of Maeve Kennedy McKean was recovered and the search continued to locate her son. 

Today, the Times has reported that eight-year-old Gideon’s body has been recovered. 

Maeve Kennedy McKean who was 40 years old, and her son Gideon went missing last Thursday while canoeing in the vast Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.

It is the latest chapter of heartbreak for the Kennedy political dynasty that has suffered multiple tragedies since President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas in 1963. 

McKean’s body was found more than two miles from the waterfront home of her mother, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, where the family had been staying to isolate themselves during the coronavirus outbreak, the Post said.

She and Gideon had gone to retrieve a ball that had fallen into the water, it said, citing relatives and police.

They appeared to have been swept away in strong currents and winds. A search team using aviation and underwater imaging sonar technology first located her body. 

Kennedy Townsend, 68, is a former Maryland lieutenant governor, and the daughter of Robert F Kennedy, the onetime US attorney general in his brother’s administration.

RFK was himself slain in 1968 as he campaigned for president five years after his brother’s death. 

Additional reporting from AFP.