Unlike other 911 calls recorded in the Edgartown Police Department’s logs that were made the night that Barack Obama’s private chef Tafari Campbell drowned, the reason for the 911 call involving Campbell was left blank, according to a report.
Campbell, 45, drowned on July 23 while paddle boarding on Great Edgartown Pond. Police have refused to release the name of the person he was with, although dispatch calls confirmed there was another paddleboarder on the water with Campbell. At 7:46 p.m., a 911 call was reportedly made from Wilson’s Landing, a paddleboard launch site, to report trouble had arisen with Campbell, The Daily Mail reported. That call was made from a woman who roughly half an hour later was reportedly using a boat nearby and possibly looking for Campbell.
“We met with the reporting party, she is on a boat with two individuals and they’re going back and forth as well,” one of the rescuers at stated at 8.23 p.m. that evening.
“A male paddle boarder who had gone into the water appeared to briefly struggle to stay on the surface, and then submerged and did not resurface. … Another paddle boarder was on the pond with him at the time and observed him go under the water,” police said.
Authorities said they located Campbell’s body using a boat with an attached side-scan sonar system and aerial support from MSP and U.S. Coast Guard helicopter crews.
Barack and Michelle Obama live roughly two miles away on Turkeyland Cove Road on Martha’s Vineyard; the house has a private beach where a paddleboard could conceivably be launched. According to The Daily Mail, the Obamas’ office did not respond when asked who was present in the Obama’s house when the tragedy occurred.
Campbell’s body, without any external injuries, was found Monday at 10 a.m., roughly 100 feet from shore. Although Massachusetts State Police concluded the death is not suspicious, the toxicology test done during his autopsy has not yet returned results.
The Obama family released a statement after Campbell’s death saying:
Tafari was 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. 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. That’s why, when we were getting ready to leave the White House, we asked Tafari to stay with us, and he generously agreed. He’s been part of our lives ever since, and our hearts are broken that he’s gone.
Brandon Drey contributed to this article.