Tragedy in the Amazon: The Ayahuasca Murders

Dark Poutine - True Crime and Dark History

Episode 179 - On April 19, 2018, in the village of Victoria Gracia, a community close to Pucallpa in Peru’s central Amazon region of Ucayali, a man got off his motorcycle. He walked toward the home of Olivia Arevalo Lomas, an 81-year-old shaman and respected elder in her community. The man was irate over a debt owed to him by the woman’s son. After firing a warning shot that drew a crowd of neighbours, the elderly healer came out of her house. After a bit of yelling back and forth, the man gunned the woman down with two shots from his pistol, killing her in broad daylight.

The man, later identified as Sebastian Paul Woodroffe, a 41-year-old British Columbian in Peru as an Ayahuasca researcher, was pursued by villagers who publicly lynched him. A cellphone recorded his killing, and the user later posted the video to Facebook. Woodroffe’s body was buried in a shallow grave. Two Peruvian men were later arrested for Woodroffe’s slaying.

What led this man, known to his friends as a gentle, helpful soul, to such a brutal crime?
Sources:
[Descent into darkness | CBC News]
[Blurred Vision: A Shaman’s Murder Exposes the Dark Side of Ayahuasca]
[The Cull of Personality Ebook - Kevin Tucker — Black and Green Press]
https://retreat.guru
[Preparing for Ayahuasca Ceremony - The Uncensored Guide]
[Ayahuasca, dimethyltryptamine, and psychosis: a systematic review of human studies]
[Sebastian Woodroffe — YouTube Channel]
[Sebastian Woodroffe — Facebook]
[Improving On Addiction Help | Indiegogo — Sebastian Woodroffe]
[Sebastian Woodroffe - VICE]
[Global News — SEARCH: Sebastian Woodroffe]
[Sebastian Woodroffe video | CBC.ca]
[YouTube — Murder investigation in the jungle - The Fifth Estate]
[Hallucinogenic Plants and Their Use in Traditional Societies - An Overview | Cultural Survival]
[(PDF) 📄 The Consumption of Psychoactive Plants in Ancient Global and Anatolian Cultures During Religious Rituals: The Roots of the Eruption of Mythological Figures and Common Symbols in Religions and Myths]
[Ayahuasca Retreat Peru, Traditional Retreat Center in the Amazon of Peru]
[Tragedy in Pucallpa: the Death of Maestra Olivia Arévalo - Temple of the Way of Light]
[Peruvian mob kills Canadian man accused of killing respected shaman | Daily Mail Online]
[Terence McKenna - Self Transforming Elf Machines - YouTube]
[“Machine Elves” or “DMT Elves”: A Spirit World Journey | DoubleBlind Mag]
[Canadian lynched in Peru after being accused of shaman’s death | Peru | The Guardian]
[All evidence shows B.C. man lynched in Peru had shot and killed Indigenous healer: prosecutor | CBC News]
[Woodroffe remembered by neighbours as ‘spiritual, loving, kind and polite’ – Comox Valley Record]
[Briton Unais Gomes killed by Canadian Joshua Andrew Freeman Stevens in Peru | Daily Mail Online]
[The Canadian Man Who Killed a British Guy at an Ayahuasca Retreat in Peru Speaks Out]
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