Mystery in Drug Induced Death Jeff Rice, "Amazing Race"

Mystery surrounds the death of a freelance TV producer found in his hotel room in Uganda after local police claimed he had large quantities of cocaine in his stomach.

The lifeless body of Jeff Rice, who worked as a fixer on the reality show the Amazing Race, was discovered with his production assistant. Catherine Fuller was found unconscious in the same room and is critically ill in hospital.

An autopsy found large quantities of cocaine in Rice's stomach, leading to speculation that the pair were involved in a botched smuggling operation. But TV sources claimed the pair were forced to ingest the drug after a failed shakedown.

Enlarge 

Creative: His company website describes Rice as 'the ideas man'

Local police today said the pair died of a suspected cocaine overdose, according to the English-language Ugandan online newspaper The Daily Monitor.

Officer Asuman Mugenyi told the Monitor: 'Results from the analytical laboratory indicate that there was an overdose of cocaine. There was too much concentration in the stomach,'

Fuller was improving, but she had not yet spoken with law enforcement, police said.

Police had at one point thought the death was caused by choking, but in this case it made no sense as there were two people involved. 

'We ordered for another post mortem which revealed that it was caused by an overdose, police told the Monitor. 

Ugandan police said they did not suspect foul play. But a source close to the Amazing Race told FoxNews.com the two were believed to to have been poisoned after a failed shakedown. 

Rice's wife Sally Blackman told the Monitor she would not speculate about her husband's death. She said: 'I would not like to speculate or even attempt to give my views on this as this may jeopardise the investigation going forward.'

Dr. Nicholas Kardaras, an addiction specialist at Stony Brook University, told Fox News that the most likely reason for cocaine in the stomach would be from a bungled smuggling operation or forced ingestion. 

He said: 'If someone were to snort very large amounts of cocaine, there could have been some trace amounts from nasal drip into the stomach. But if the concentration was found in the stomach, that’s likely a result of smuggling or ingestion.' 

'A typical overdose from the traditional methods of using cocaine is not going to be in the stomach. If it was found in his stomach, it could absolutely have been the result of poisoning if he was forced to ingest it.'

 

Father-of-two Rice and his assistant were part of a team that helped create challenges across Africa for the CBS show, The Amazing Race.

They were not working on the show at the time of their collapse but they had helped with the current season, which hit screens on Sunday

Loss: Production facilitator Jeff Rice (left, pictured with his brother), who worked for TV show The Amazing Race, has died after he was poisoned in Uganda

Success: Rice, with Ghanaian footballer Asamoah Gyan, ran SB Productions

Rice, originally from the United States, had worked in Los Angeles, California for five years before moving to Durban in South Africa.

He married Blackman in 2001 and they went on to have two children, now aged seven and one. He had planned to travel home this week to celebrate his daughter's second birthday.

'Jeff was a dedicated father who made the most of his time with his family when back home in South Africa,' his wife told FoxNews.com.

'He has left a huge void, not only in the film industry, but with his family he has left behind. We will miss his smiles and constant humor.'

In 1999, Rice and Blackman founded SB Productions, which produces and facilitates films, adverts, documentaries and television shows. 

By LYDIA WARREN and HANNAH ROBERTS       dailymail.co.uk