Tragedy has hit a team in charge of facilitating challenges for “The Amazing Race” and other reality shows on the continent of Africa, a source close to the show tells FoxNews.com. 
 
 At least two freelance facilitating producers were poisoned -- one fatally -- after a failed shakedown attempt, the source told FoxNews.com. 
 
 FoxNews.com also spoke with a person who identified herself as a family member who said the facilitator who died was Jeff Rice. 
 
 The family member said Rice's body was found in Uganda. 
 
 Details are sketchy, but the source said that after refusing to give in to the demands of local thugs, Rice and another facilitator ended up very sick with poisoning of some kind. 
 
 Rice was not currently working on “The Amazing Race,” but he had worked on Season 20, which premiered on CBS on Sunday. Rice had also worked on Animal Planet's "Whale Wars" and the South African version of "The Biggest Loser," along with several other series and television movies. 
 
 A rep for Jerry Bruckheimer Films, the production company behind “The Amazing Race,” said that he had “no knowledge” of the incident. 
 
 CBS had no comment. 
 
 Facilitators are typically local people hired by production companies to make necessary arrangements with local officials before producers come in to shoot scenes for their shows. 
 
 “The Amazing Race” features multiple teams of two competing in a race around the world to win $1,000,000 in prize money. The series became a sensation when it first aired on CBS in September 2001 and continues to be one of the network's highest rated shows. ||||| IMDB 
 
 Authorities are still saying that all signs point to Jeff Rice dying from a cocaine overdose last week. 
 
 An autopsy performed on the producer, who most recently did freelance work on The Amazing Race, turned up "major metabolites of cocaine," according to details given to the Uganda Police Force and confirmed by E! News. 
 
 Per the government's Analytical Laboratory in Wandegeya, investigators also found a baggie of white powder in Rice's hotel room that tested positive for opiates as well as acetaminophen, caffeine and acetylcodein. 
 
 And it gets gorier from there. 
 
 MORE: Police discount poison theory, suspect drug overdose in Jeff Rice's death 
 
 The UPF report states that Rice was found slumped in a chair on the balcony of his room at the Lake Victoria Serena hotel in Kampala, his head resting on a table and blood coming out of his mouth and nose. 
 
 Kathryne Fuller, Rice's assistant, who remains hospitalized, was found unconscious on the floor nearby. Both were booked into room 427, according to police. 
 
 "The police were called in by the hotel. The two were taken to hospital. Jeff Rice was declared dead on arrival," Uganda Media Centre spokesman Fred Opolot tells E! News. "The initial investigations by the doctor who checked them showed Rice probably was suffocated. His lady friend was unconscious and had no indication of suffocation. Above all of that, some white substances were found on the table. Further investigation was done on Jeff Rice. It was found he was intoxicated by a cocaine substance. The police came to the conclusion that he probably had an overdose." 
 
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 "We heard reports that he was attacked by thugs," Opolot continued. "The hotel he stayed at was a 5-star hotel. The rooms can only be accessed by hotel workers or guests. No one can easily walk in an out. There's good security at the hotel. Those allegations are unfounded." 
 
 They had flown into the country on Feb. 15 to work on a documentary—and the horrific trip may not be over for Fuller anytime soon, reports ABC News. 
 
 Because cocaine was also found in Fuller's system, she may have broken Ugandan drug laws and will need permission from Interpol to be allowed to return home to South Africa, UPF spokesman Asuman Mugenyi told ABC. 
 
 "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," Mugenyi said. "She is not able to speak. Although she is responding to the treatment, she is not yet available to explain what transpired." 
 
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 "I send my condolences to Jeff Rice," Opolot told E! News. "It is unfortunate. He came to this country to do a good program—he came across as someone of humanity. It is unfortunate he has passed away and really our condolences to his family. I also want to ensure that the Uganda governance and police force will expedite all investigations to ensure that his cause of death is confirmed. As of now what is known is that Jeff passed away as a result of an overdose of cocaine." 
 
 Rice held dual American and South African citizenship and lived in the Durban area with his wife, Sally Blackwell, and their two daughters. 
 
 Blackwell, who originally told reporters that her husband must have been poisoned as a result of a shakedown-gone-wrong, wrote on Facebook yesterday that the family is tentatively trying to get a memorial together for Feb. 27 at Phe Zulu Village in the Valley of 1,000 Hills. 
 
 "Thank you to everyone for all the tremendous support and kind words," she wrote. "It has been truly amazing to receive messages from people around the world who speak so highly of Jeff. Jeff was on a film production in Uganda and was doing what he loves...He was a true asset to the film industry worldwide and Africa was his 'home'. His dream was to produce in all areas of Africa and for his company 'Maverick entertainment' to be known as the company to call on...As soon as I know more details surrounding his tragic loss, I will update this." 
 
 —Reporting by Sharareh Drury 
 
 GALLERY: Celebrity Deaths: 2012's Fallen Stars ||||| 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 today. 
 
 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. 
 
 "There was no struggle. These were two people in their room and there was not a single sign of a struggle. Not even a single bruise on Rice's body," Mugenyi said. 
 
 Mugenyi dismissed earlier reports that Rice might have been poisoned after a run-in with local "thugs." Many friends find it hard to believe that both he and Fuller could have simply overdosed. 
 
 Sources said Rice and Fuller may have been working on an investigative documentary and fear they might have been targeted. However, Uganda Police say they were hired by the Minnesota-based Starkey Hearing Foundation to shoot a documentary about the work of a non-profit in Uganda that provides hearing aids to people who can't afford them. 
 
 "I was shocked," Josh Gates, a friend of Rice's told ABC News. "Jeff was someone who was terrific at his job. I don't know exactly what to think about what happened to Jeff. I hear conflicting reports coming out of the region." 
 
 Ugandan police said they have now ruled out food or drink poisoning. 
 
 "This is a very wrong account," Mugenyi said. "Very wrong." 
 
 'Amazing Race' Producer's Death: Police Await Assistant's Recovery to Gain More Info 
 
 "For him to pass away so young so suddenly is alarming, obviously, but also is surprising because he was someone who was really able to take care of himself in the field. He was excellent at what he did," Gates added. 
 
 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. 
 
 Katheryne Fuller's father Stuart Fuller confirmed she and Rice were shooting a documentary, and said other crew members who were with them should know more about what sickened them. Stuart Fuller said he is now with his daughter at the hospital in Kampala. 
 
 "She is OK. We are trying to get her back to South Africa. She needs medical attention that they can't do here," he said. 
 
 According to a friend of the family, Fuller's wallet and passport are missing from the hotel room, complicating the efforts to have her moved back to South Africa.
– Police in Uganda have dismissed reports that thugs poisoned Amazing Race producer Jeff Rice, saying the American appears to have died from a cocaine overdose. Rice was found slumped in a chair on his hotel balcony, and an autopsy found the drug in his system, officials say. Rice's assistant Kathryn Fuller, who remains critically ill in a local hospital, also tested positive for the drug, and may not be allowed to leave the country for treatment in her native South Africa until after questioning. Police believe the pair voluntarily ingested the drug, contradicting reports from Rice's wife that he was apparently poisoned after rebuffing a shakedown by local crooks, ABC reports. The two were in Uganda filming a documentary about a non-profit organization that provides the poor with hearing aids. "It is unfortunate," a government official tells E! Online. "He came to this country to do a good program—he came across as someone of humanity. It is unfortunate he has passed away, and really, our condolences to his family."