A former staff of the White House who was working for the Obama family as a chef was reportedly found dead on Monday in a pond on the south shore of Martha’s Vineyard.
According to a news release from Massachusetts police, Tafari Campbell, 45, “was employed by former President Obama and was visiting Martha’s Vineyard at the time of his passing.”
Campbell, who was reported missing early Sunday evening after going paddleboarding, was reported to have fallen into the pond while paddleboarding, police say.
He went “into the water, appeared to briefly struggle to stay on the surface, and then submerged and did not resurface,” an earlier state police news release said.
According to the police news release, another paddleboarder on the pond with him at the time saw him go under the water.
It further stated that investigators from the Massachusetts Environmental Police retrieved Campbell’s body from Edgartown Great Pond shortly before 10 a.m. Monday.
Barack and Michelle Obama claimed in a joint statement emailed to CNN that they first met Campbell when he served as a sous chef at the White House. After Obama’s eight-year presidency, he continued to work for the couple.
“Tafari was a beloved part of our family,” said the Obamas in their statement. “When we first met him, he was a talented sous chef at the White House—creative and passionate about food and its ability to bring people together. In the years that followed, we got to know him as a warm, fun, extraordinarily kind person who made all of our lives a little brighter.”
“That’s why, when we were getting ready to leave the White House, we asked Tafari to stay with us, and he generously agreed. He’s been part of our lives ever since, and our hearts are broken that he’s gone,” the statement continued. “Today we join everyone who knew and loved Tafari—especially his wife Sherise and their twin boys, Xavier and Savin—in grieving the loss of a truly wonderful man.”
The death of the chef is being investigated by the State Police Detective Unit for the Cape and Islands District and the Edgartown Police Department, according to state police.
