Former President Barack Obama’s personal chef drowned near his Massachusetts home.
The body of 45-year-old Tafari Campbell was found near Edgartown Great Pond. Obama’s Back home on Martha’s Vineyard on Monday.
The chef from Virginia is still employed by the Obamas, who were not staying at the hotel when the accident happened.
The former president and his wife in a statement michelle obama said Mr Campbell was “a much-loved member of our family”.
They said they asked him to stay with them after the chef left the White House in 2017 as a sous chef.
“He has been a part of our lives since then and our hearts are broken by his passing,” the Obamas said, adding that he was a “warm, funny, very kind person.”
The chef and paddle boarder were reported missing on July 24 after an avid paddle boarder reported seeing Mr Campbell struggle to sink underwater, never to surface again.
Police suspended the search and confirmed on Monday that a boat had found the body about 30 meters (100 feet) off shore.
They said he wasn’t wearing a life jacket.
The Obamas said Mr. Campbell is survived by his wife, Cherise, and their twin sons.