Family mourns loss ‘too large to ever heal’
Autopsy shows ‘no trauma’
An autopsy on Saoirse Kennedy Hill revealed “no trauma inconsistent with livesaving measures,” the Cape and Islands District Attorney’s Office reported Friday. Members of the Kennedy clan began arriving at the family’s Hyannisport compound, and some joined matriarch Ethel Kennedy for a calming sail.
A determination on Kennedy Hill’s cause of death is “pending a toxicology report,” said Assistant District Attorney Tara Miltimore said. Her death remains under investigation by Barnstable and state police. The granddaughter of Ethel and the late Robert F. Kennedy was found unresponsive at the compound Thursday.
Barnstable police were called to 28 Marchant Ave., one of the homes on the famed 6-acre waterfront compound Thursday for an unresponsive female, Miltimore said, in what the district attorney’s office is calling an “unattended death.”
Paramedics arrived at 2:32 p.m. Thursday. the Hyannis Fire Department said. Kennedy Hill was transported to Cape Cod Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, Miltimore said. Published reports citing family and law enforcement sources said she died of an apparent overdose.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner performed an autopsy Friday that “revealed no trauma inconsistent with lifesaving measures.”
The 22-year-old Kennedy Hill was the daughter of Courtney Kennedy Hill and Paul Michael Hill, one of the Guildford Four who were wrongly convicted of involvement in Irish Republican Army bombings. Her death is the latest in a series of tragedies to befall the storied political dynasty.
Members of the Kennedy clan gathered Friday at the Cape Cod compound – a cluster of three clapboard homes that rose to prominence as the summer White House under John F. Kennedy and remain a beacon for the family in times of joy and strife.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Anthony Shriver were spotted entering the compound during the day. Ethel Kennedy and Courtney Kennedy Hill were later seen out boating – a family pastime – with several companions on a large vessel named The Glide. They disembarked at the local yacht club before returning to their private complex.
In an Instagram post Friday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote, “Saoirse was fierce, both in her love for her family and yearning for justice. A fearless adventurer, she inspired curiosity and daring in her friends. But her greatest gift was to find humor in everything and to give us all the gift of her laughter — and our own. The gaping hole that she leaves in our family is a wound too large to ever heal.”
Former Rhode Island Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy, Saoirse’s second cousin, tweeted Friday, “Saoirse will always remain in our hearts. She is loved and will be deeply missed.”
Kennedy Hill had struggled with her mental health, chronicling her depression in an online post while attending Deerfield Academy in 2016. Patrick Kennedy, now an advocate for mental health and addiction, tweeted her account Friday, calling it “a powerful reminder of how so many people suffer alone and feel isolated.”
Kennedy Hill was a Boston College student studying communications in the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences. She would have graduated in 2020.
Vice President for Student Affairs Joy Moore published a letter Friday in memory of Kennedy Hill, saying, “Saoirse was a gifted student who aspired to work in the communications field and contribute to the national dialogue through TV, radio, music, and film. She was active in the College Democrats, and had many friends on campus.”