A 22-year-old granddaughter of Robert F. Kennedy who openly wrote about her battle with depression has died at the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts the family said in a statement.
Saoirse Kennedy Hill, 22, was the daughter of Robert and Ethel Kennedy's fifth child, Courtney, and Paul Michael Hill, who was one of four falsely convicted in the 1974 Irish Republican Army bombings of two pubs.
The Kennedy family released a statement on Thursday night, following reports of a death at the family's compound in Hyannis Port. The statement was issued by Brian Wright O'Connor, a spokesman for former congressman Joseph P. Kennedy II.
The statement says Saoirse Hill was passionate about human rights and women's empowerment and that she worked with indigenous communities to build schools in Mexico.
The statement quoted her 91-year-old grandmother, Ethel Kennedy, as saying "the world is a little less beautiful today."
Paramedics responded to a medical call at the Kennedy compound property on Thursday afternoon, police said.
Saoirse attended Boston College, where she was a member of the class of 2020.
In 2016, she openly wrote about mental illness and a previous suicide attempt while a student at Deerfield Academy. In the article, she also wrote that she had survived a sexual assault, "after someone I knew and loved broke serious sexual boundaries with me."
A police cruiser and a red car were also parked outside the waterfront property.
In a statement, Assistant District Attorney Tara Miltimore of the Cape & Islands district attorney's office said police responded to a Marchant Avenue residence for an unattended death.
Police say they responded to 28 Marchant Ave. for a medical call shortly after 2:30 p.m. Thursday.
Fire crews cleared the scene at 2:54 p.m.
The home, which is assessed at $2.5 million, has been owned by several Kennedy family members over the years, including the late Edward M. Kennedy and the late Robert F. Kennedy, online assessor's records show.
In the 1960s, the compound served as the summer White House for President John F. Kennedy.
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