DT Producer Died Of Coke OD, Report Ugandan Police

Uganda’s English-language Daily Monitor (with the motto “Truth Everyday”) reporter Andrew Bagala wrote on February 22nd: “An autopsy carried out on freelance TV producer Jeff Rice’s body that was found in a Kampala hotel room, has revealed that he took an overdose of suspected cocaine, police said Wednesday.”

The rest of Bagala’s article gives new details, such as Jeff Rice being found dead on Friday, February 17th, not Sunday, February 19th:

Mr Rice, a freelance producer for American reality TV show Amazing Race run by CBS, a US commercial TV broadcaster, was on Friday found dead, while his colleague, Ms Catherine Fuller was found unconscious in the same room.

Amazing Race is a reality television game show where a team of two competes with other groups to arrive first at a designated destination. It is also aired on NTV on weekends.

Police Spokesman Asuman Mugenyi said yesterday: “Results from the analytical laboratory test indicate that there was an overdose of cocaine, with too much concentration in the stomach.”

Police were by press time yet to identify his nationality. Scene of Crime officers reportedly picked materials they suspect to be contrabands from the room, and have sent the samples to the government analyst for examination.
Mr Mugenyi said Ms Fuller’s health is improving and they are yet to record a statement from her.

According to police, the two hired a room in the hotel on Thursday but on Friday, a hotel worker found the man hanging on a balcony, prompting him to investigate further.

“When they opened the room, they found Ms Fuller lying in coma while Mr Rice was motionless on the balcony. They called police and took Rice to hospital but he was pronounced dead,” Mr Mugenyi said. Ms Fuller was too taken to a hospital in Kololo.

Mr Mugenyi said preliminary investigation pointed at food choking but investigators wondered how it could have happened to both people: “We ordered for another post-mortem which revealed that it was caused by an overdose,” he said.

Illicit drugs are becoming a problem in the country and last year, at least 20 kilogrammes of drugs worth Shs20 billion were destroyed in Kampala.

Police yesterday also refuted allegations that the deceased died of food poisoning or an attack by suspected thugs.

Speaking editorially here at Cryptomundo, there just seems to be something very strange about the unfolding details of this story.

For our first item on this, see here.

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

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