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UPDATE: 2:30 pm EST

New reports have surfaced suggesting that the mysterious death of Amazing Race producer Jeff Race in a Uganda hotel room was the result of a cocaine overdose and not poison, as his widow earlier claimed.

Family members, including Rice’s wife, Sally Blackman, initially said it appeared as though Rice was poisoned after refusing an attempted robbery by local gang members.

But local cops told ABC News that Rice likely OD’d on cocaine.

“Those were misreported rumors about this being some kind of attack by thugs,” Uganda police spokesman Asuman Mugenyi said.

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Jeff Rice, a freelance producer for the CBS reality TV show The Amazing Race, was found dead in his hotel room in Uganda after a suspected poisoning.

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According to Fox News, Rice and his assistant were apparently poisoned after refusing to give up their belongings to local thugs.

In an apparent robbery attempt, a source said that Rice and his female assistant “ended up very sick with poisoning of some kind.”

Rice’s wife Sally Blackman said that, “They were not attacked but [evidence] points towards being poisoned.”

“His production assistant was also discovered in a coma and has been hospitalized in Uganda. She has not shown any improvement as yet,” she added. 

Uganda police are continuing their investigation into the incident, but no further details have become available.

Rice and his assistant were not working on the show at the time of the suspected poisoning, but had helped with the current season, which premieres this Sunday.

Rice had been working in Los Angeles, California for five years before moving to Durban in South Africa. Rice married Blackman in 2001 and they have two children, age seven and one.

It’s heartbreaking that something like this happened and now two young children will grow up without a father.

ABOVE: 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.