Homicide detectives investigate death of man who consumed frog toxins and ayahuasca at NSW spiritual retreat
Homicide detectives are investigating the death of a man who consumed a cocktail of Amazonian “medicines” at a spiritual retreat in northern New South Wales three years ago.
Forensic officers were also involved in a raid late last week on the property up a steep rainforest track in Collins Creek, near Kyogle, where 46-year-old Jarrad Antonovich died on the night of October 2021 while participating in a ceremony involving the psychoactive brew ayahuasca and while still in the agonised throes of a “kambo” ritual in which frog toxins had been applied to shallow burns in his skin.
The raid and public appeal for information come almost six months after the NSW state coroner, Teresa O’Sullivan, paused a lengthy inquest into Antonovich’s death that was due to hear testimony from the man who presided over the ayahuasca ceremony and organised the six-day Dreaming Arts retreat, Soulore “Lore” Solaris, and the man who led the kambo ritual, Cameron Kite.
O’Sullivan suspended the inquest on 24 May after finding that the evidence heard since 8 May 2023 would probably satisfy a jury that a known person had committed the indictable offence of negligent manslaughter.
The NSW director of public prosecutions generally has a period of six months to decide whether or not to pursue criminal charges recommended by the coroner.
Antonovich was living in Lismore and writing about his spiritual healing journey after acquiring brain injuries as a young man. He was widely described as a gentle and compassionate soul.
Paramedics arrived at the Arcoora arts and ecology training ground on Gonpa Road, Collins Creek, at about 12.40am on 17 October 2021 after reports a man had collapsed.
They would later testify to finding Antonovich unresponsive, blue in colour and “clearly deceased” while people continued the ceremony nearby.
Ambulance officer Brett Murray told the coroner that he and Phillipa Vallard, the first on the scene, “couldn’t establish any information” about what had happened to Antonovich.
“It was weird … While we were working, we were trying to just say: ‘People, tell us something, who is this, what is this, what’s going on?’,” he told the inquest.
The suggestion for Antonovich’s sudden collapse in the triple-zero call was an asthma attack, counsel assisting the coroner Peggy Dwyer said.
In fact, he died of a tear in his oesophagus. The inquest heard varying accounts of the timeline of events leading to Antonovich’s death, but that he had the kambo applied in the morning, possibly as early as 10am, and took the ayahuasca after the sun had set that evening, was not disputed.
Though one is a hallucinogen and the other a stimulant, both indigenous South American medicines often induce purging, or vomiting.
Throughout the day, the inquest was told, Antonovich’s reaction to the kambo, including puffy face and neck, swollen eyes and ragged breathing was of concern to those around him, though none called an ambulance. Had someone done so in a timely fashion, the court heard, Antonovich would likely have survived.
A few participants of the ceremony – some of whom paid more than $1,000 to attend the retreat – who came forward after the inquest began testified that they were told not to speak of Antonovich’s death or tell authorities about the use of kambo and ayahuasca, which were both illegal at the time.
Antonovich’s father, Glen, told the court that he was of the “firm belief that there’s been a cover-up”.
Several witnesses stressed that Antonovich was adamant he did not want to seek medical attention.
Solaris’s barrister, Alex Radojev, denied the allegations against his client, including that of a cover-up.
