This is a very sad story. I live in the valley he is from and heard some of his friends talking about this on FB when it first occurred.
The first news reports stated that many indigenous leaders who oppose deforestation etc. were being targeted and murdered.
One year, 13 were killed in Peru.
*News updates now indicate Olivia was simply a healing practitioner and not an activist.
It was believed another 'white' foreigner had committed the crime over an unpaid debt that the shaman (Olivia) had 'owed'.
Sebastian was a client of hers.
A lot of tourists travel to South America and there is a thriving business involving sprirtual awakening and treatment and recovery. It's noted that different people have different experiences and some receive great benefit while others have fatal results and traumatic reactions.
Also worth noting is the different practitioners range from 5 star spa like treatment facilities to huts in a jungle with 1 person. A young man died in one case after being 'left alone to die' as his mother put it, in a hut in the jungle.
The arrest of the 2 men seen putting the cord around his neck and dragging him was ordered.
*Update 05/28 The two suspects sought for arrest have now fled. At one point they were reported as 'having been arrested'. It is unclear if they posted bail.
The jungle is the haystack. They are the needles.
Sebastian was not considered a suspect in Olivia's murder.
*Update 05/27 Sebastian is now the primary suspect in her murder! Allegations include his purchase of a gun, witnesses seeing a gun fall from his backpack, a motorcycle being used in the crime belonging to him and a $5,500 CDN $(4,200 US) debt between Olivia's son and Mr Woodroffe.
As of this posting news reports emerged claiming Mr Woodroffe purchased a gun from a police officer 3 days prior to the murder and demanded repayment of money from the medicine woman's son.
The amount mentioned is approximately the amount fundraised thru his indiegogo campaign to make the trip.
*Update: the amount has changed and reflects closer to what he fundraised minus travel expenses.
Although it says 'it is unclear' what he did for 3 years I'm aware he travelled back here to Vancouver Island in that time. There are numerous stories from friends of recent encounters they had here in that time and photos of his son and him up the mountain on their first skiing trip.
Some friends said he appeared different and unhappy after returning from the jungle and experimenting with the plant.
RIP
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.thes...-arrested/amp/
Canadian dies in ‘lynching’ in Peruvian Amazon, accused of killing an indigenous shaman
It was 2013 when Sebastian Woodroffe decided to quit his job and leave his home in Canada to study plant medicine in Peru. A relative’s battle with alcoholism had inspired him to “fix the family’s spirit” and pursue a career as an addictions counselor, he said in a YouTube video.
Woodroffe, then a 36-year-old father of a 4-year-old boy, began raising money for an apprenticeship with traditional healers in the Amazon. He felt a responsibility to “support this culture and retain some of their treasure in me and my family, and share it with those that wish to learn,” he wrote on a fundraising page. He was particularly interested in experiencing ayahuasca, a sludgelike hallucinogenic potion used by indigenous shamans in spiritual exercises.
It’s not entirely clear what happened in the years that followed, or whether the Canadian tourist found the healing he was seeking in the Peruvian Amazon. But late last week, his name and face somehow landed on a wanted poster that accused him of killing a beloved shaman and indigenous activist in a remote rain forest in northeastern Peru.
Enraged members of the indigenous community appear to have taken matters into their own hands. Peruvian authorities say a mob of locals in the Amazonian region of Ucayali killed Woodroffe before burying him in a makeshift grave. Peru’s ombudsman described the killing as a “lynching.”
A gruesome cellphone video that emerged in local news outlets shows a man — later identified by officials as Woodroffe — being dragged through the mud by a cord wrapped around his neck. He moans and pleads for mercy before lying motionless in the dirt.