A private chef to the Obama household died over the weekend after he was seen struggling within the water whereas paddleboarding close to the previous first household’s dwelling on Martha’s Vineyard, the Massachusetts State Police mentioned on Monday.

The physique of the chef, Tafari Campbell, 45, of Dumfries, Va., who was visiting the Vineyard, was discovered simply earlier than 10 a.m. Monday about 100 toes from shore in Edgartown Great Pond in water about eight toes deep by the Massachusetts Environmental Police. It had deployed sonar from a ship throughout an hourslong search that started Sunday evening and concerned a number of regulation enforcement companies.

Former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama weren’t dwelling on the time of the accident, the state police mentioned. An investigation into the loss of life of Mr. Campbell, who had labored as a sous chef when the Obamas have been within the White House and stayed on with them afterward, is being performed by the state police and the Edgartown Police Department.

Just earlier than 8 p.m. on Sunday, emergency companies from Edgartown responded to Edgartown Great Pond close to Turkeyland Cove, the place Mr. Obama has a summer time dwelling, for a name of “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,” the state police mentioned in a press release.

Another paddleboarder was on the pond with him on the time and noticed him go below water, the police mentioned. The state police, the U.S. Coast Guard and a number of native fireplace models, together with divers, assisted within the search.

After a number of hours of looking out on Sunday evening, “the operation was paused to allow dive teams, flight crews and other responders to re-equip and assess next steps,” the state police mentioned.

Chief Alex Schaeffer of the Edgartown Fire Department told The Vineyard Gazette that island cops and firefighters had performed door-to-door searches after Mr. Campbell was reported lacking, and that firefighters had searched the pond’s shoreline by foot.

In a press release, Mr. and Mrs. Obama known as Mr. Campbell “a truly wonderful man” and “a beloved part of our family.”

“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,” they mentioned. “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.”

The Obamas mentioned that they had requested Mr. Campbell to remain on with them as they have been on the point of go away the White House.

“He’s been part of our lives ever since,” they mentioned. “Our hearts are broken that he’s gone.”

According to their assertion, Mr. Campbell’s survivors embrace his spouse, Sherise, and twin boys, Xavier and Savin.

The Obamas, longtime summer time guests to Martha’s Vineyard, purchased a secluded 30-acre property on the south shore in 2019 for $11.75 million. Their seven-bedroom, 6,900-square-foot-house fronts Edgartown Great Pond with views of a barrier seaside and ocean. The nonetheless, brackish, coastal pond has a number of inlets which can be fashionable amongst leisure boaters, particularly amongst kayakers and paddleboarders hoping to soak up a spectacular sundown.

The National Weather Service reported truthful and clear situations on Sunday evening, with a excessive temperature round 70 levels.

Mr. Obama has visited the Vineyard since his days as an Illinois senator and spent a part of each August on the island for seven of the eight years he was in workplace, skipping 2012 throughout a re-election marketing campaign.

This just isn’t the primary time a chef for a former American president has died in a sudden method. Walter Scheib, a former government chef through the administrations of Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, drowned by accident in 2015 after going on a hike in Taos, N.M.