The young woman who died of an apparent drug overdose at the Kennedy compound in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, on Thursday was identified as the granddaughter of former Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.
According to local WCVB, emergency crews found Saoirse Kennedy Hill, 22, in cardiac arrest a little after 2:30 p.m., when they responded to calls from one of the homes at the sprawling property made famous as the retreat of the Kennedy family for generations.
The house is owned by Ethel Kennedy, 91, the widow of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968. “The world is a little less beautiful today,” Ethel said in a statement.
“Our hearts are shattered by the loss of our beloved Saoirse. Her life was filled with hope, promise and love,” the Kennedy family said. Saoirse was the daughter of Courtney Kennedy Hill and Paul Hill.
Saoirse wrote that she struggled with depression from an early age. In a 2016 column for her school paper, she said that “just because the illness may not be outwardly visible doesn’t mean the person suffering from it isn’t struggling.”
Hill’s death comes almost exactly 20 years after the death of John F. Kennedy, Jr., who died in a plane crash, and 50 years after the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, who drowned when Sen. Ted Kennedy drove their car off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island.
