"Amazing Race" TV producer found dead in Africa

(CBS) TV producer and production facilitator Jeff Rice died over the weekend in Africa, according to media reports.

Rice, who worked on "The Amazing Race," "Whale Wars" and "The Biggest Loser: South Africa," was found dead in his hotel room in Kampala, Uganda, on Saturday, according to reports. His female production assistant was taken to the hospital in critical condition.

The details are unclear and an investigation is under way. Some reports say Rice, 39, may have been poisoned to death after a run-in with some locals in Uganda.

The Daily Monitor, an English language online newspaper in Uganda, quoted a police official saying Rice suffered a cocaine overdose.

Rice's wife is trying to figure out what went wrong.

"They were not attacked, but [evidence] points toward being poisoned," Rice's widow Sally Blackman told FoxNews.com, which first reported the news. "At this stage it is quite difficult to give you any firm reports as the incident is currently under investigation by the Uganda police."

"As I talk, we have already obtained the post-mortem report from Mulago hospital and we are only waiting for the toxicological analysis which we are expecting any time today," Ibin Senkumbi, Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesman, told Reuters TV on Wednesday. "Our earlier suspicion was that they could have been poisoned, but the post mortem report shows there could have been some problem of choking. We are only wondering how two people could be choked by food at the same time."

Rice, an Oklahoma native, moved to South Africa to start a production company in 1999. He leaves behind two girls, ages 7 and 2.

Rice worked on the most recent season of "Amazing Race," which was filmed in 2011.

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