(WatchDogReport.org) – Celebrity chef Naomi Pomeroy died aged 49 on July 13 in a drowning accident. Pomeroy’s death was confirmed by her family, who said she was inner tubing in the Willamette River, Oregon, with Kyle Webster, her husband, and a friend of the couple. When the chef was tubing, she went underwater and failed to resurface, according to Lieutenant Toby Bottorff of Benton County Patrol in a press statement the next day.
The family told reporters that the group’s flotilla hit a snag and capsized. Webster and the couple’s friend swam ashore and survived the incident, but Pomeroy did not have a life jacket on when she went underwater. After search teams eventually discovered her body on July 17 and could not revive her, she was declared dead. A press release stated that deputies released Pomeroy to a funeral home and informed her family of the recovery of the body.
Pomeroy’s body was discovered at around 10:00 a.m. on July 17 between Corvallis and Albany, roughly half a mile upstream of Hyak Park. According to the BCSO’s investigation, when the paddleboard and attached floaters and tubes were flipped over, Naomi was dragged underwater and held there by her paddleboard leash. The sheriff’s office added that strong currents that contributed to the chef’s death made the recovery complicated.
Webster told reporters while the search for his wife’s body was still ongoing that Pomeroy was “at peace” with the ride they were on, having achieved all she set out to do. An Oregon native, the celebrated chef owned multiple restaurants in Portland, such as Beast, Cornet Custard, and Expatriate. She also planned to open Garden Party, a summer experience that would have featured homegrown produce from her own garden.
Pomeroy is survived by Webster and the couple’s 23-year-old daughter, August. The chef appeared on Bravo’s “Top Chef Masters” in 2011. Bravo and the show posted a statement on X, formerly Twitter, extending condolences to Pomeroy’s family. It described her as a “powerhouse chef” who made a great impact on the industry.
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