On Monday, July 24, the Massachusetts police recovered a body from a lake near Barack Obama’s family’s mansion in Martha’s Vineyard. The body was identified as that of Obama’s personal chef Tafari Campbell who went missing in the waters of Edgartown Great Pond on Martha’s Vineyard on Sunday, July 23.
The Obamas have a property on Martha’s Vineyard, but according to Massachusetts State Police, they were not there when Campbell died. The Massachusetts police further said that Campbell was working for the Obamas at the time of his death and had been in Martha’s Vineyard.
Campbell, of Dumfries, Va., had been a sous chef in the Obama White House and worked for the family after the 44th president left office in 2016.
Police recovered the body of Tafari Campbell, 45, roughly 100 feet from shore and eight feet underwater in a coastal inlet called Edgartown Great Pond just before 10 am on Monday, according to a news release from the Massachusetts State Police.
The search was launched on Sunday night for “a male paddleboarder who had gone into the water, appeared to briefly struggle to stay on the surface, and then submerged and did not resurface,” according to a police report.
“Another paddleboarder was on the pond with him at the time and observed him go under the water,” it added.
On Monday, his body was found “approximately 100 feet (30 meters) from shore at a depth of about eight feet,” the police report added.
After the discovery, the Obamas released a statement mourning the death of their “beloved” chef. “Campbell was a beloved part of our family who worked in the White House and continued on with the family after Obama left office. 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,” the couple said in the statement. “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 read.
Campbell is survived by a wife and twin boys, the Obamas said.
“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,” USA’s ex-president and his wife said.
