A month after the body of Tafari Campbell was pulled from Edgartown Great Pond, state officials say the death has been ruled an accidental drowning.
The 45-year-old Virginia man, who’d been working as the personal chef to former President and First Lady Barack and Michelle Obama at the time of his death, had been reported missing while paddleboarding on Edgartown Great Pond last month.
On the night of Sunday, July 23, local police responded to a 911 call made by a nearby paddleboarder who had witnessed Campbell struggling to stay afloat but was unable to lend assistance in time.
After an exhaustive multiagency search of the roughly 900-acre pond, Campbell’s body was recovered the following morning. The remains were located using side-scan sonar, and were found in eight-foot-deep waters approximately 100 feet from shore.
On Wednesday, Tim McGuirk, spokesperson for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, told The Times that the autopsy confirmed the cause of death to be drowning, and the manner of death to be accidental.
No other information has been released publicly.
According to spokespersons for the Obama family, Campbell had been visiting the Vineyard with the former first family at their Katama estate. Although they were on-Island at the time of the incident, Mr. and Mrs. Obama were not at the residence at the time the 911 call was made, official sources told The Times.
Campbell, a former White House sous-chef, had accepted an offer to work for the Obamas after leaving office in 2016.
Following his tragic death, the former first family released a statement in which they described Campbell as a “beloved part of our family,” and “a warm, fun, extraordinarily kind person who made all of our lives a little brighter.”
Campbell is survived by his wife Sherise, and children Xavier and Savin.