Missing former White House chef Walter Scheib found dead in New Mexico

Former White House chef Walter Scheib, who had been missing for nearly two weeks, was found dead on 21 June in the mountains of New Mexico, where he had gone hiking.

According to CNN, Scheib had been missing since 13 June when he went on a solo hike on a mountain trail in Taos, New Mexico. The former chef for Presidents Bill Clinton and George W Bush was reported missing by a family member.

Investigators tracked his cell phone signal to a mountain in Taos on 18 June, New Mexico State Department of Public Safety announced. Scheib's car was found by investigators two days earlier at the Yerba Canyon Trailhead, CNN reported.

Scheib's body was found off the immediate trail approximately 1.7 miles from the base of a hiking trail, the statement by New Mexico State Department of Public Safety said.

The New York Times reported there were no details on the cause of death for the 61-year-old.

Scheib's was personally hired by former White House First Lady Hillary Clinton to replace Pierre Chambrin as White House chef in April 1994, the Times reported. "I get to do every day what most chefs get to do once or twice in their life, if they're lucky," he told the Times in 1998. "People will have to pry me out of her with a crowbar."

He was later fired in 2005 under the Bush administration and replaced by Cristeta Comerford.