Saoirse Kennedy Hill, 22, died at the Kennedy family compound in Cape Cod after a suspected drug overdose. Photo / Facebook
Saoirse Kennedy Hill, 22, died at the Kennedy family compound in Cape Cod after a suspected drug overdose. Photo / Facebook
Kennedy family members have paid tribute to Saoirse Kennedy Hill, who died tragically at the family's estate of a suspect overdose this week.
Robert F Kennedy Jr, Kennedy Hill's uncle, posted a series of photos of her online, commenting that she "was fierce, both in her love for her family and yearning for justice."
"The gaping hole that she leaves in our family is a wound too large to ever heal."
"Our hearts are shattered by the loss of our beloved Saoirse," she wrote. "Her life was filled with hope, promise and love."
Kerry, the ex-wife of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, is one of Ethel and Robert F. Kennedy's 11 grandchildren and the sister of Kennedy Hill's mother, Courtney Kennedy Hill.
"Saoirse was passionately moved by the causes of human rights and women's empowerment and found great joy in volunteer work, working alongside indigenous communities to build schools in Mexico. We will love her and miss her forever."
Former Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy, the son of RFK's brother Ted Kennedy, tweeted a photo of Kennedy Hill with a tribute message.
"Saoirse will always remain in our hearts," he write. "She is loved and will be deeply missed."
The only daughter of Courtney, 62, and Paul Hill, 65, Saoirse Kennedy Hill reportedly died of a drug overdose at the family's Cape Cod compound on Thursday.
Saoirse will always remain in our hearts. She is loved and will be deeply missed. pic.twitter.com/HIyLBivXQD
The Kennedy family has had its fair share of tragedy over the years. The 22-year-old's death is the latest incident in the so-called "Kennedy curse".
Members of the family were seen embracing in emotional scenes at the compound after her death.
Kennedy Hill had been outspoken about her battle with depression and had also opened up about her experience with sexual assault.
As a high school junior at Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts, she wrote an article for the student newspaper on the subject in 2016.
"My sense of wellbeing was already compromised, and I totally lost it after someone I knew and loved broke serious sexual boundaries with me," she wrote in the Deerfield Scroll. "I did the worst thing a victim can do, and I pretended it hadn't happened. This all became too much, and I attempted to take my own life."
Before she died, she had been studying mass media and communications at Boston College and was expected to graduate next year.
Kennedy Hill's father Paul Michael Hill, 66, was falsely convicted along with three others over the 1974 Irish Republican Army bombings of two pubs and spent 15 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. He later married Courtney Kennedy, the daughter of assassinated presidential candidate Robert Kennedy.
A flag flies at half-staff at the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port, Mass. Photo / AP
According to the New York Post, Saoirse Kennedy Hill was the victim of an abduction attempt outside the family's Cape Cod compound in 2007, when she was 10.
Police reports said the girl was returning home from playing tennis in Hyannis Port when she was approached by two men in a van and asked if she wanted a ride.
"Two white males, approximately 50 years old according to the witness, were sitting in a white GMC van," Barnstable police Sgt. Mark Mellyn said at the time.
"As the girl walked by the van, the driver asked her if she needed a ride. The young girl responded, 'no,' and just did not feel right about the situation and ran home," he said.
Kennedy Hill reportedly told another girl about the incident and her mother informed the police.
