R.I.P. Naomi Pomeroy: Top Chef Masters Alum Dead At 49 After Drowning In A Tubing Accident [Video]

Critically acclaimed chef and Top Chef Masters alum Naomi Pomeroy died on Saturday (July 13) after drowning in an inner-tubing accident on Oregon’s Willamette River, The Oregonian reports. She was 49.

According to a press releasee shared on Tuesday (July 16) by the Benton County Sheriff’s Office, Pomeroy “drowned in the Willamette River near river mile 132 in Corvallis, about 100 yards upstream from the Mary’s River” at around 8:25 p.m. on Saturday.

“An investigation by BCSO determined three floaters on tubes and a paddle board, secured together, were caught on an exposed snag in the water,” the press release also reads, in part. “One of the floaters, Naomi, was pulled under the water and held by the paddle board leash.”

Pomeroy’s family had confirmed the news of her passing to Portland Monthly, noting that her husband, Kyle Linden Webster, was one of the three people tubing and survived. The Oregonianreported that the other individual, who …