When police and paramedics drove up a steep track through the rainforest foothills of the Border Ranges and found a dead man in a temple being prayed over while his feet were being massaged, they struggled to understand it.
The long wait for answers to what occurred on the night of 16 October 2021 was extended this week when the New South Wales state coroner suspended an inquest into the death of Jarrad Antonovich in Byron Bay – more than a year after it first sat and on what was supposed to be its final day of testimony.
The suspension came on Friday morning when the coroner, Teresa O’Sullivan, found that evidence presented to courtrooms across the NSW northern rivers since 8 May 2023 would likely satisfy a jury that a known person had committed an indictable offence.
That indictable offence was negligent manslaughter. The person, Soulore ‘Lore’ Solaris, a man whom the inquest had heard described as a shaman and spiritual leader, and who allegedly organised the six-day retreat at the Dreaming arts festival at Arcoora where he presided over the ayahuasca ceremony at which Antonovich died.
The NSW director of public prosecutions now has six months to decide whether to pursue criminal charges against Solaris for failing to seek the medical assistance that may have saved Antonovich’s life.
Antonovich, the inquest was told by multiple witnesses, had drunk the psychedelic brew ayahuasca despite still being in the grips of a prolonged and painful reaction to the “kambo” frog toxins that had been ritualistically applied to shallow burns in his skin many hours earlier that day. Though one is a hallucinogen and the other a stimulant, both indigenous South American “medicines” are expected to induce purging, or vomiting.
The inquest heard that none of this information, however, was made known to the paramedics who arrived to take over the failed attempts at CPR. The suggestion for Antonovich’s sudden collapse in the triple-zero call was an asthma attack, counsel assisting the coroner, Peggy Dwyer, said in her opening remarks.
Ambulance officer Brett Murray told the coroner of his frustration that, despite dozens of people on the scene who had witnessed the death of the 46-year-old man, they all seemed “preoccupied with whatever they were doing”. Antonovich died of a tear in his oesophagus.
Some at the retreat had their faces painted while others were doing a “rhythmic type of movement” that Murray struggled to describe, having never seen anything like it before. They were mostly dressed in white, the court heard.
“It was weird,” Murray told the inquest. “We couldn’t establish any information. While we were working, we were trying to just say: ‘People, tell us something, who is this, what is this, what’s going on?’”
Those accounts – sometimes conflicting, often harrowing – would come over the course of the inquest.
Many testified to being concerned about Antonovich following the kambo ritual and that his wellbeing was the subject of prolonged group discussion.
Lee O’Dwyer, who was helping alleged ritual leader Cameron Kite apply frog toxin from around 10am, said later that during the afternoon he suggested Antonovich go to hospital – but was told that “elders” had determined it unnecessary. Garth Brewin spoke about being concerned about the intensity of the bloating of Antonovich’s face, forehead and cheeks, only to be reassured by people he perceived to be experienced kambo practitioners that this was normal.
Several witnesses stressed that Antonovich was adamant he did not want to seek medical attention.
“He told me that it was his process, that he needs to ride out,” said Rafael Camargo, a Brazilian man who said he was cooking for the retreat.
Yet others told the court the decision should not have rested with Antonovich alone.
Lurelle Alefounder, who had kambo alongside him, said in her statement to police that she believed an ambulance “should have been called for [Antonovich] much earlier than it was”.
“I would expect that, if I had an extreme adverse reaction to the medicine, those responsible for the retreat would recognise the symptoms and react appropriately,” she said.
Alefounder also told the court that Solaris asked her to tell Antonovich’s flatmate not to reveal that he had died during an ayahuasca ceremony but that she refused as she did not “want to lie”. A retreat participant, Bella Gardner, claimed she was told “never speak of that event again”.
Antonovich’s father, Glen, told the court his dealings with the retreat leaders after he learned of his son’s death felt reminiscent of “the old doctors in the wild west”.
“I’m of the firm belief that there’s been a cover-up,” he said.
Solaris’s barrister, Alex Radojev, denied the allegations.
As to his client’s version of the fatal events – that will have to wait to be told. Solaris and Kite were the last two witnesses due to give testimony before the inquest was suspended.
The other account of events that was never heard, of course, was that of Antonovich.
The inquest did, however, paint a moving picture of the man whose life was cut short. His father, Glen, gave the first testimony to the inquest, telling the coroner how his boy was a “gentle soul”, but also a “vulnerable” one.
The court heard anecdotes of a man who would offer his spare room to people he had just met, who was always looking to help others because, as one said, he needed help himself.
Then, in the closing stages of the inquest, the court heard from Antonovich directly, when a recording of an ABC radio interview from 2019 was played.
In it, Antonovich spoke with honesty and eloquence of his troubled early years, his addiction to illicit drugs and the car accident that left him with acquired brain injuries. Then of finding meaning in healing and in writing.
“I’ve just published my first book and, from here on in, who knows where it will go?”
The inquest into Antonovich’s death has, for now, also ended with unanswered questions.
