Granddaughter of RFK Dies of Suspected Overdose

Another tragedy for the Kennedy family: Saoirse Kennedy Hill, the 22-year-old granddaughter of Robert F. Kennedy, has died. "Our hearts are shattered by the loss of our beloved Saoirse," the Kennedy family said in a statement. "Her life was filled with hope, promise and love." Sources tell the New York Times that Kennedy Hill died from a suspected overdose at the Kennedy family compound in Hyannis Port, Mass. The Boston College student was the daughter of Courtney, Robert and Ethel Kennedy's fifth child, and Paul Michael Hill, who spent 15 years in British prisons after being wrongly convicted of involvement in IRA bombings in the 1970s, the AP reports. Authorities say police were called to the home Thursday afternoon for a "reported unattended death."

"The world is a little less beautiful today," grandmother Ethel Kennedy, 91, said in the family's statement. Kennedy Hill was an advocate for causes including reducing gun violence. She was a graduate of the elite Deerfield Academy in Deerfield, Mass., where she wrote an article for the school paper about her struggle with depression, the Boston Herald reports. "My depression took root in the beginning of my middle school years and will be with me for the rest of my life," she wrote. "Although I was mostly a happy child, I suffered bouts of deep sadness that felt like a heavy boulder on my chest." She said she had attempted suicide after somebody she knew "broke serious sexual boundaries" with her. (More Kennedy family stories.)