Barack Obama and his spouse, Michelle Obama, are mourning the lack of their private chef Tafari Campbell after he was discovered useless on Monday, July 24.

“Tafari was a beloved a part of our household,” the previous president, 61, and the previous first girl, 59, instructed CNN in a joint assertion on Monday. “After we first met him, he was a proficient sous chef on the White Home — inventive and captivated with meals, and its means to carry individuals collectively. Within the years that adopted, we obtained to know him as a heat, enjoyable, terribly type one that made all of our lives just a little brighter.”

Information broke on Monday that Campbell’s physique was found by divers close to the Obama’s Katama property in Martha’s Winery, Massachusetts, after he was reported lacking on Sunday, July 23. He was 45.

The seek for Campbell started on Sunday night when police and fireplace companies responded to a 911 name at 7: 46 p.m. ET stating that “a male paddle boarder who had gone into the water, appeared to briefly battle to remain on the floor, after which submerged and didn’t resurface.”

Massachusetts Environmental Law enforcement officials recovered Campbell’s physique shortly earlier than 10 a.m. ET on Monday, in accordance with a press launch. Utilizing side-scan sonar from a ship, the division situated the late chef “roughly 100 ft from shore at a depth of about eight ft.”

The Obamas have been “not current on the residence on the time of the accident,” per the police report. Nonetheless, the household was fast to sing Campbell’s praises by way of their assertion on Monday.

Campbell first crossed paths with the couple whereas serving as a sous chef on the White Home throughout Barack’s presidency. He was later employed by the Obamas to remain on as their private chef after Barack left workplace. (Barack served because the forty fourth president of the US from 2009 to 2017.)

“He’s been a part of our lives ever since, and our hearts are damaged that he’s gone,” Barack and Michelle instructed CNN on Monday. “At the moment we be a part of everybody who knew and liked Tafari – particularly his spouse Sherise and their twin boys, Xavier and Savin – in grieving the lack of a very fantastic man.”

The State Police Detective Unit for the Cape and Islands District and Edgartown Police are presently investigating Campbell’s loss of life.