Portland chef Naomi Pomeroy and her husband were visiting a friend in Corvallis when the three of them hit a snag while floating down the Willamette River, leading to Pomeroy’s drowning death July 13, newly released Benton County Sheriff’s Office records show.
Pomeroy, 49, and her husband, Kyle Webster, were sitting in two inner tubes and Hans Hlawaty was on a paddleboard around 8 p.m. that Saturday. The paddleboard cord was attached to Pomeroy’s ankle, and Pomeroy’s and Webster’s tubes were attached with a rope, so the three of them could float together.
They planned to float from Willamette Park, south of Corvallis, to Michael’s Landing, a boat launch on the west side of the river.
As they were floating, Webster heard Hlawaty say something similar to “Oh (expletive).” The three of them hit a snag sticking out of the water, throwing them off the inner tubes and paddle board.
Webster became “extremely disoriented,” he told a Corvallis police officer, but heard Hlawaty shouting at him to swim to shore. Webster swam to the west bank of the river.
Hlawaty told police he saw Pomeroy struggling under the water after they all fell and that he tried to swim to her, but the current was too strong.
He was going to make a second attempt, but Webster told him to get help, Hlawaty told police. He ran to the intersection of Oregon 34 and Northwest Van Buren Avenue, flagged down a driver and called 911.
Webster told police that he had drunk one beer and Pomeroy had drunk about half a beer and none of them had used any recreational drugs, according to a Corvallis Police Department police report provided by the Benton County District Attorney’s Office in response to a public records request.
Hlawaty declined to comment for this article, and Webster could not be immediately reached.
Corvallis Fire Department rescuers were the first to reach the snag and found Pomeroy still submerged, department officials previously told The Oregonian/OregonLive. Believing she could still potentially be rescued and that there could be other victims missing, the rescuer cut the cord, but didn’t get hold of Pomeroy’s body before she disappeared in the current.
The Benton County Sheriff’s Office soon took over searching for her. A deputy and a sergeant searched downriver from the accident using sonar equipment. Believing there could be other victims, the deputy requested help from other marine deputies and another sheriff’s office boat launched on the water.
The search ended at nightfall, with plans to pick it up again in the morning, the deputy wrote in a Benton County Sheriff’s Office incident summary.
Pomeroy’s body surfaced on river bedrock around 10 a.m. July 17 about a half-mile north of Hyak Park, just west of Albany. A canoeist had reported seeing a body matching Pomeroy’s description in the river.
Pomeroy was a self-taught cook who first gained prominence through a pop-up restaurant held at her own home. She and her partner then opened multiple prominent restaurants, and got themselves into magazines and onto TV.
Pomeroy’s restaurant Beast was named The Oregonian’s co-Restaurant of the Year in 2008. In 2013, she competed on “Top Chef Masters” and, the following year, she was named Best Chef in the Northwest at the James Beard awards.
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