US: Barack Obama's personal chef found dead near former president's home
Massachusetts: A former White House employee and former United States President Barack Obama’s personal chef was found dead in a pond near Obama’s family home on Monday, CNN reported quoting Massachusetts police.
45-year-old Tafari Campbell, “was employed by former President Obama and was visiting Martha’s Vineyard at the time of his passing,” said a release from Massachusetts State Police. Campbell was reportedly missing from early Sunday evening after he went paddleboarding, said the police.
He went “into the water, appeared to briefly struggle to stay on the surface, and then submerged and did not resurface,” the news release added, as per CNN.
According to the release, another paddleboarder who was on the pond with him at the time saw him go under the water.
The police news release also said that Campbell's body was fished out of the Edgartown Great Pond before 10 am on Monday by Massachusetts Environmental Police officers.
His body was found by divers from the department's underwater recovery team about 100 feet from the coast at a depth of around 8 feet after police located him using a side-scan sonar from a boat.
Barack and Michelle Obama claimed in a joint statement released to CNN that they first met Campbell while he was a sous chef at the White House. He kept working for the couple even after Obama's eight-year presidency.
“Tafari was a beloved part of our family,” said the Obamas in their statement, adding, “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.”
According to police, the Obamas were not home at the time of the incident.
Campbell's death is being looked into by the Edgartown Police Department and the State Police Detective Unit for the Cape and Islands District, according to state police, CNN reported.
