Kennedy Granddaughter Saoirse's Official Cause of Death Awaiting Toxicology Report After Suspected Overdose
Authorities on Friday morning released further details about the death of 22-year-old Saoirse Kennedy Hill, one of Robert F. Kennedy‘s granddaughters and the daughter of Courtney Kennedy Hill, who was found unresponsive at the family’s storied Massachusetts compound on Thursday afternoon.
The local prosecutor’s office said Friday that police responded to the scene, in Hyannis Port, about 3 p.m.
Multiple news outlets, including the Boston Globe and New York Times, said authorities were first called about a reported overdose.
The Cape and Islands District Attorney’s Office did not specify the nature of the police call in their statement on Friday, beyond saying that Saoirse was found unresponsive at the scene and pronounced dead at a local hospital.
“An autopsy performed today has revealed no trauma inconsistent with lifesaving measures,” prosecutors said. “The cause and manner of death are pending the toxicology report.”
Both local and state police are investigating, according to the D.A.’s office.
In a statement on Thursday, the Kennedy family said they were “shattered” by Saoirse’s sudden death.
“Her life was filled with hope, promise, and love,” the family said. “She cared deeply about friends and family, especially her mother Courtney, her father Paul, her stepmother Stephanie, and her grandmother Ethel.”
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Family matriarch Ethel Kennedy, 91, said Saoirse “lit up our lives with her love, her peals of laughter and her generous spirit.”
“The world is a little less beautiful today,” Ethel said.
RELATED: Kennedy Family Is ‘Shattered’ by the Suspected Overdose Death of ‘Beloved’ Granddaughter Saoirse, 22
A rising senior at Boston College where she was studying communications, according to the Globe and Times, Saoirse was also vice president of her school’s College Democrats.
“In classes she was often the first student to offer an opinion on readings that demanded clear critique about the challenges of contemporary society,” one of her college professors, Marcus Breen, told the Times.
