Frog toxin used at retreat where Jarrad Antonovich died caused woman to faint and soil herself, inquest hears
The Amazonian frog toxin used at a spiritual retreat where a man died was so strong that it caused another participant to faint and soil herself, an inquest has heard.
Witness testimony in a Byron Bay courtroom paused on Thursday afternoon, the penultimate day of the inquest into the death of Jarrad Antonovich, with only the man alleged to have organised the six-day retreat at which he died and presided over its ayahuasca ceremonies, Soulore “Lore” Solaris, and the man alleged to have conducted its “kambo” ceremonies, Cameron Kite, yet to appear.
Earlier in the day, the courtroom heard both men continued to conduct similar rituals in the months following Antonovich’s agonising death on 16 October 2021 after taking “kambo” – the toxic secretions of an Amazonian frog – and hallucinogenic tea.
The court also heard that the “kambo” used in the ritual was so strong that it caused at least one other participant in the ritual to faint and lose control of her bowels.
Lurelle Alefounder testified to a quid pro quo relationship with Solaris. Describing him as a spiritual leader, Alefounder said she gave Solaris singing lessons in exchange for her participation in ceremonies, which could cost $350 each.
The pair met in 2021, she said, at a Solaris-led ayahuasca ceremony and Alefounder went on to participate in more than a dozen other ceremonies over which he allegedly presided, including that at which Antonovich died.
Alefounder was singing and participating in the ceremony after having drunk ayahuasca while a prone Antonovich made “unpleasant noises” and was “groaning like he was in intense pain” in the last moments of his life, she told the inquest.
She was also sitting next to Anotonvich at the kambo ritual that morning. However she had limited contact with him in the intervening hours after enduring what she agreed was an “extreme experience” with the drug herself.
“You estimate that within a minute of that kambo being applied you purged into a bucket, you felt very hot, your heart was racing,” counsel assisting the coroner, Peggy Dwyer, said, reading Alefounder’s police statement.
“You explain in your statement, you purged, you soiled yourself, you lost consciousness for a few seconds.”
Alefounder agreed but said such reactions were “not uncommon” – she herself had experienced all the same reactions at her prior kambo ceremony, which had also been presided over by Kite.
Related: New witnesses offer fresh information into ‘kambo’ death at northern NSW spiritual retreat
About an hour after Antonovich’s death, Alefounder said Solaris asked her to drive to Lismore and tell his flatmate to “not reveal that it was an ayahuasca ceremony”.
Alefounder agreed it was the “humanitarian thing to do” to pass on news of the tragedy but said she refused to follow the second part of the request.
“I wasn’t going to do that, because I didn’t want to lie,” she said.
Solaris’s barrister, Alex Radojev, denied this occurred and questioned why the allegation had not been made in Alefounder’s police statement.
Alefounder retained a strong belief in the effectiveness of the Indigenous Brazilian medicines, saying they had healed her in ways that mainstream Western medicine had failed.
Alefounder told the court she was a participant in a Kite-led kambo ritual relatively soon afterwards and several Solaris-led ayahuasca ceremonies over the course of following months.
Lee O’Dwyer, who helped Kite conduct the kambo ritual by applying burns to the skin of participants, later told the court he also took part in Solaris’ ceremonies until August 2023.
O’Dwyer said his recollections were “somewhat different” to Alefounder’s, saying he did not recall helping apply the kambo to Antonovich, as O’Dwyer left the ceremony and spent about 30 minutes with Alefounder, helping her through her reaction to the frog toxin.
“There was some cleaning required,” he said.
O’Dwyer said that at some point in the afternoon he suggested Antonovich go to hospital, but deferred to “elders” who had decided he did not.
Earlier, the inquest heard expert testimony that Antonovich’s life would probably have been saved by timely medical attention.
