Two members of the Kennedy United States political dynasty, including a grand-niece of assassinated president John F Kennedy, were missing since Friday after they went canoeing.

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend’s daughter and eight-year-old grandson disappeared on Thursday after boating on the South River in Maryland, Governor Larry Hogan told reporters.

An intensive search had been underway since Thursday.

‘On behalf of the people of Maryland, I expressed our most heartfelt sympathies and prayers to her and to her entire family during this difficult time,’ Hogan said.

Kennedy Townsend, 68, is a former Maryland lieutenant governor, and the daughter of Robert F Kennedy, the onetime United States attorney general in his brother’s administration.

Robert F Kennedy was slain in 1968 as he campaigned for president five years after his brother’s death.

In 1999, John F Kennedy Jr and his wife and sister-in-law died when the small plane he was piloting crashed off the Massachusetts coast.

Saoirse Kennedy Hill, a granddaughter of Robert F Kennedy, died of what was ruled an accidental drug overdose last year at age 22.