‘Amazing Race’ Assistant May Not Be Allowed to Go Home
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Courtesy Josh Gates(LONDON) — The assistant to Amazing Race producer Jeff Rice, who Uganda police say died of a cocaine overdose, may not be allowed to leave the country because she also tested positive for cocaine, police told ABC News on Thursday.
Katheryne Fuller, who was in Kampala, Uganda, to help Rice film a documentary, was found unconscious on a hotel balcony next to Rice last Friday. Both were rushed to a hospital where Rice was declared dead.
“Ms. Fuller is slowly recovering, and when she is recovered enough we will be able to talk to her and find out more about what happened,” Uganda Police Force spokesman Asuman Mugenyi said. “She is not able to speak. Although she is responding to the treatment, she is not yet available to explain what transpired.”
Fuller’s father is with her and hoping to take her home to South Africa for medical treatment, but Mugenyi indicated Fuller may not be allowed to go home soon.
Because she tested positive for cocaine, she likely broke Uganda’s drug laws, Mugenyi told ABC News. He said the police were waiting for permission from Interpol to release Fuller to go back to South Africa, and also to release Rice’s body to his family in South Africa.
According to Ugandan police, the two are believed to have voluntarily ingested the substance.
Ugandan police said they have now ruled out food or drink poisoning.
Rice was a veteran producer who worked on the latest season of the hit reality series The Amazing Race and the Emmy-nominated Animal Planet series “Whale Wars.” In addition to raising two young kids, Rice and his wife, Sally Blackman, operated a television and film production company called SB Productions in Durban, South Africa.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio