Homicide detectives are investigating the death of a man who consumed 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 comes almost six months after the NSW state coroner, Teresa O’Sullivan, 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 evidence presented to courtrooms across the NSW northern rivers 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 compass.
