A personal chef to the Obama family died over the weekend after he was seen struggling in the water while paddling near the former first family’s home on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts State Police said Monday.
The body of the chef, Tafari Campbell, 45, of Dumfries, Va., who was visiting the Vineyard, was found shortly before 10 a.m. Monday about 100 feet from the shore of Edgartown Great Pond in water about eight feet deep by Massachusetts Environmental Police. It deployed sonar from a boat during an hour-long search that began Sunday night and involved multiple law enforcement agencies.
Former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama were not home at the time of the accident, state police said. An investigation into the death of Mr. Campbell, who worked as a sous chef when the Obamas were in the White House and stayed with them afterward, was arrested by state police and the Edgartown Police Department.
Just before 8 p.m. Sunday, emergency services from Edgartown responded to the Edgartown Great Pond near Turkeyland Cove, where Mr. Obama has a summer house, for a call to “a male paddleboarder who went into the water, appeared to struggle for a while to stay on top and then submerged and disappeared again,” said the state police in a statement.
Another paddleboarder was in the pond with him at the time and saw him submerged in the water, police said. State police, the US Coast Guard and several local fire units, including divers, assisted in the search.
After several hours of searching Sunday night, “the operation was suspended to allow dive teams, flight crews and other responders to re-equip and assess next steps,” state police said.
Chief Alex Schaeffer of the Edgartown Fire Department told The Vineyard Gazette that island police and firefighters conducted a door-to-door search after Mr. Campbell was reported missing, and that firefighters were searching the shore of the pond on foot.
In a statement, Mr. and Mrs. Obama called Mr. Campbell was “a wonderful person” and “a beloved part of our family.”
“When we first met him, he was a talented White House sous chef — creative and passionate about food, and its ability to bring people together,” they said. “In the years that followed, we got to know him as a warm, fun, incredibly kind person who made everyone in our lives brighter.”
The Obamas said they asked Mr. Campbell to stay with them as they prepare to leave the White House.
“He has been a part of our lives ever since,” they said. “It breaks our hearts that he is gone.”
According to their statement, the survivors of Mr. Campbell includes his wife, Sherise, and twin boys, Xavier and Savin.
The Obamas, longtime summer visitors to Martha’s Vineyard, bought a secluded 30-acre property on the south coast in 2019 for $11.75 million. Their seven-bedroom, 6,900-square-foot house fronts the Edgartown Great Pond with views of a barrier beach and ocean. The quiet, brackish, coastal pond has several inlets that are popular with recreational boaters, especially kayakers and paddleboarders hoping to watch a spectacular sunset.
The National Weather Service reported fair and clear conditions Sunday night, with a high temperature near 70 degrees.
Mr. Obama has visited the Vineyard since his days as an Illinois senator and has spent part of every August on the island for seven of his eight years in office, skipping 2012 during the re-election campaign.
This is not the first time that a chef of a former American president has died suddenly. Walter Scheib, former executive chef during the administrations of Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, accidentally drowned in 2015 after a hike in Toas, NM
