Our crime story today takes place in Peru and covers the murder of Olivia Arevalo and the lynching of Sebastian Paul Woodroffe, commonly referred to as the Ayahuasca Murders. This story has a lot of moving parts so let us just hop into it!
As always, we start the episode with a brief description on the legal system of the country where the crime story takes place. As a democratic and decentralized republic with a multiparty system, Peru runs on the civil law system. The President serves the head of the state and government, representing the country’s ongoing interests and directing governmental policy. Like the United States, Peru has three separate branches of government, the executive, legislative and judiciary. The judicial branch, of course, administers justice throughout the country. The Peruvian constitution dates to 1933 and the Supreme Court serves as highest court in the land. As far as crime goes, the police investigate. So far very straight forward; however, Peru suffers from corruption rumors within the police and government. Most prominently, disgraced former President Alberto Fujimori resides in prison, having received a 30 year sentence for mass corruption. Transparency International's 2016 Corruption Perception Index ranks the country 101st place out of 176 countries. Statistics also rank Peru 63rd out of 230 countries for its murder rate and an estimated 7.7 people out of 100,000 people murdered in Peru.
Peru locates on the western side of the South American continent, nestled between Brazil to the east the Pacific ocean to the west. Best known as the site of one of the greatest wonders of the world, Machu Picchu, Peru serves as a popular vacation spot where tourists can also visit the Amazonian jungle, remains of the Inca Empire, the Nazca Lines and ayahuasca. Personally, I did not know about the ayahuasca until a few weeks ago when I watched the Netflix documentary Unwell. The documentary talks about different organic treatments that supposedly help people, the topics range from essential oils, tantra sex to fasting. I personally recommend you watch the documentary; it was quite fascinating and educational. One episode spotlighted ayahuasca and it introduced me to the culture surrounding this drug.
Ayahuasca is a halogenic cocktail that comes from the sections of the vine Banisteriopsis caapi and the leaves of several other plants. This brew contains the powerful hallucinogenic alkaloid DMT and a MAO inhibitor. Used for centuries by indigenous groups in the Amazon, Spanish explorers reached the Amazon for the first time the noticed “the work of the devil” that devil being ayahuasca. Traditionally not used as a recreational drug, Ayahuasca rituals are both physically and mentally demanding and indigenous groups ingest during a nighttime ceremony. In small doses the drug has a tranquilizing effect that begins 15 to 60 minutes after drinking the cocktail and lasts for 2 to 6 hours. Led by a shaman, the ayahuasca ceremony calls for people to drink the brew and after a few minutes vomit and this serves as the cleansing part of the ceremony. The drug now takes effect. Some experience euphoria and a feeling of enlightenment, while others go through severe anxiety and panic. It’s not uncommon for those taking ayahuasca to experience both positive and negative effects from the brew. The shaman offers spiritual guidance to participants throughout the ayahuasca experience and monitor participants for safety. Some retreats have medical staff on hand as well, in case of emergencies. Some people have died from ayahuasca as a result of a seizure or choking on their own vomit. But according to a study from the Beckley Foundation, ayahuasca produces feelings of openness, optimism, and the ability to decenter oneself in the universe and experience a sense of unity. Ayahuasca reportedly helps with self-discovery, anger problems, addiction, and even medical problems such as cancer. Just to note, ayahuasca remains illegal in the United States but some people argues that it impedes their 1 st amendment right to freedom of religion stating that ayahuasca is part of a religious ceremony. I’m sure some idiot judges buy that argument just as they might buy human sacrifice as a religious freedom, but I digress. Illegal underground ayahuasca ceremonies occur not only in the United States but in other countries around the world as well.
What does all of this have to do with Peru? In recent years Peru has become a hub for ayahuasca ceremonies. Particularly the city of Iquitos, nestled in the Amazon basin has become the Ayahuasca capital. Other big ayahuasca hubs in Peru include the cities of Puerto Maldonado and Tarapoto. Ayahuasca tourism has exploded in Peru, with several ayahuasca healing centers emerging. From luxurious month-long retreats that offer jungle tours to short one-day ceremonies capitalism reigns. If you want to experience Ayahuasca, vomit and potentially die, Peru jumps to the top of your drug tourism list. Now that we have a clear backdrop, let’s hop into the crime story.
Our crime story does not actually start in Peru, but in Canada where we meet our first major character in our story, Sebastian Paul Woodroffe who went by Paul. Born October 26, 1976 in British Colombia, Canada. Paul, according to his friends and family, loved the outdoors, hated materialism and consumerism and was a seeker. Paul never seemed interested in the conventional life and really did not worry about money. In 2013, Paul worked many odd jobs such as construction, tree planting and even as a sea urchin diver. The guys on the sea urchin boats dubbed him Seabass, and note that he seemed wrapped up in his own world. Likely an alcoholic, Paul did have a big heart and knew all the homeless people on Vancouver Island, even helping them out when he could. Paul had one son who he co-parented with his boy’s mother. Paul and his son would often hang out and bond in the wilderness together.
Always interested in “spiritual enlightenment,” remember friends and family referred to hm as a seeker, Paul studied the local indigenous ways as well as the teachings and spirituality of indigenous people all around the world. Through these self studies Paul become interested in ayahuasca. After an intervention about his alcohol abuse and his ever growing interest in the indigenous lifestyle Paul made the decision to become and addiction counselor. Paul decided to start his journey to become a counselor by going to Peru to study ayahuasca as well as go through an ayahuasca ceremony for his own healing. Paul landed in the ayahuasca capital, Iquitos, Peru where he went to the retreat center Baris Besa, managed by indigenous shaman Guillermo Arevalo. Paul returned to Canada convinced of the power of ayahuasca, but Paul’s friends and family disagreed. Paul became increasingly aggressive and mentally unstable. In 3 response Paul arranged illegal underground ayahuasca ceremonies in Canada. Paul’s family encouraged him to seek psychological help, the western medicine way.
Paul made back and forth trips to Peru, without his family’s knowledge. On these trips Paul become friends with the Guillermo Arevalo whose retreat center he would attend in Iquitos. He also met Guillermo’s cousin, Olivia Arevalo Lomas. Part of the indigenous Shipibo tribe, the small 81 year old elder Olivia remained vibrant and one of the most respected shamans in the Peruvian Amazon. She knew 500-600 plants that would address a wide range of sickness. Olivia worked in popular tourist ayahuasca retreat centers. Olivia served and Paul’s shaman and even mentored him in the ways.
At this point the story gets strange as most stories involving drugs do as abnormal becomes normal. In 2017, Paul, seemingly on a downward spiral reportedly “freaked out” locals through overly aggressive behaviors and he prowled the streets at night with club in hand. Reportedly, he visited a cafe, known to be popular among expats in Pacallpa, and asked a stranger for a gun.
Paul seemed obsessed with the Arevalo family and they hatched a plan whereby Paul contacted the owners of a company in Canada that Paul had previously worked in to ask for a loan to fund a new ayahuasca retreat center that the Arevalo family and Paul would start. Not all went well with the Arevalo family as rumors suggest that Paul gave Olivia’s son Julian money for never received ayahuasca or that Paul felt ripped off by Julian over the establishment of the new retreat center.
In March 2018, an angry Paul rented a motorcycle, switched rooms in a hotel, and went to the police complaining that he had been robbed and had lost his passport. On March 27th, Paul wrote on Facebook “"I am feeling better day by day in Peru. so thankful to be sitting with good peeps." But he also added in a reply that, "I am leaving the place I am at due to a tribal disagreement." On March 30th, Paul walked into a police station and asked to buy a gun in order to protect him from the Jungle animals. This was not illegal for the Peruvian police to do, but I’m sure it’s not recommended either. Nevertheless, Paul bought a gun for around $830 USD. On April 5, Paul posted on Facebook: "Not enjoying life right. Having a rough go. please send me prayers…"
On April 19, Paul left the boarding house where he stayed and told his roommate he was off to take ayahuasca. He drove to Olivia’s house and stood outside shouting for Julian to come out. Paul had his gun and started firing shots into the air. Some reports say that Olivia stepped out of the house to confront him about the shots, and in a rage, he pointed the gun at her fired twice before trying to flee. The locals/witnesses also said that he had demanded a healing chant from her before he shot Olivia twice, killing her. By the time police arrived to the scene angry villagers had already grabbed Paul off his motorcycle. The mob pulled a pistol out of Woodroffe’s backpack. They told people present not to call the police, they had plans to get justice. The mob then beat Paul up, took a rope, and lynched him in public. The people who did so, allegedly told the audience that if anybody reported his death, they would meet the same end. Being 2018, however, video soon surfaced and identified four ringleaders of the lynching one of whom was the mayor of the town that Olivia had lived in. Although identified they escaped, assumedly to the Amazon jungle, and have not been seen to this day.
It’s not entirely clear exactly what happened in the moments before Olivia’s death or why it occurred; But when authorities found Paul’s body forensic testing confirmed that he had pulled the trigger of the gun that killed Olivia. Even today, many family and friends do not believe that Paul shot Olivia Arevalo. Despite all his troubles, killer did not fit the profile of the man they knew."I find it hard to believe that this actually occurred," said Gary Woodroffe, Paul’s father. "I just know my son." Locals in Olivia’s town believed the authorities did not care about the killing of Olivia Arevalo, and only pursued the case because it involved a dead gringo. The prosecutor in the case stated "You can't take justice into your own hands, Sebastian Paul, for what he did, had to face justice. The people who killed him have to face justice ... You can't respond to a violent, illegal act with another violent, illegal act."
No one really knows the motive that Paul had when he shot Olivia. In Paul’s rented room in Peru they found a book, a long hunting knife, a wrestling mask, sleeping pills, Olanzapine, (an antipsychotic drug used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder), and the anti-anxiety drug Clonazepam. No one definitively knows whether Paul took ayahuasca on his last trip to Peru but ayahuasca and antipsychotics do not mix. In the most basic terms, ayahuasca serves as a downer while antipsychotics are uppers. In a recent case a British man on antipsychotics took ayahuasca at a ceremony thought another participant was possessed by a demon. So he got a kitchen knife to attack him and then himself lost his life in the ensuing chaos. Not enough research on ayahuasca to know its effects with other medications exists but common sense should reign. My elementary school teachers taught me to just say no!
Sources:
https://www.peruhop.com/taking-ayahuasca-in peru/#:~:text=Ayahuasca%2C%20also%20known%20as%20yag%C3%A9,region%20for%20thousands%20of%20years.
Netflix.com “Unwell, Ayahuasca”
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