A CANADIAN man is seen begging for his life moments before being lynched in Peruvian rainforest after reports he killed a female shaman.
Shocking mobile phone footage appears to show Sebastian Woodroffe begging for mercy while being dragged by the neck between thatch-roofed homes, before being left motionless on the muddy ground.
A man believed to be Sebastian Woodroffe is shown being dragged along the ground in the Peruvian Amazon
The 41-year-old was believed to have been studying natural medicine under Olivia Arevalo Lomas, an elderly shaman who ran a healing centre offering ayahuasca - an Indigenous hallucinogenic mixture.
The 81-year-old plant healer from the Shipibo-Konibo tribe was fatally shot on Thursday, with Peruvian authorities describing Woodroffe was her killer.
Woodroffe was slayed on the same day. His body was found in an unmarked shallow grave in the forest just half a mile from Arevalo's home in Victoria Gracia in North East Peru.
Ricardo Palma Jimenez, the head of the group of prosecutors in Ucayali, confirmed that the man in the video was Woodroffe and that he had been strangled to death after receiving several blows across his body.
Instagram Sebastian Woodroffe was killed in Peru on Thursday
Central European News Shaman Olivia Arevalo Lomas was fatally shot
Footage shows the bloody body of shaman Olivia Arevalo Lomas lying on the floor
Facebook The 41-year-old is believed to have travelled to Peru to learn about natural medicine
Mr Jiminez said that no arrests have been made in relation to either deaths.
He told Reuters: "We will not rest until both murders, of the Indigenous woman as well as the Canadian man, are solved."
Ms Lomas's murder has prompted outrage in Peru, following other unsolved murders of indigenous activists who had repeatedly faced death threats related to efforts to keep illegal loggers and oil palm growers off native lands.
Woodroffe, from British Columbia, was one of thousands of foreign tourists who travel to the Peruvian Amazon to experiment with ayahuasca, a bitter, dark-colored brew made of a mixture of native plants.
Central European News Lomas was a well-known activist for the cultural rights of the Shipibo-Conibo indigenous group in the Peruvian Amazon
Distressing footage circulated on social media shows the Canadian tourist being dragged along the ground, moments before his death
Central European News Lomas's covered body after her death
No arrests have yet been made in connection with Sebastian Woodroffe's death
The hallucinogenic cocktail, also known as yage, has been used by indigenous tribes in Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia as a cure for numerous ailments.
But it's also increasingly consumed by Western tourists looking for mind-altering experiences, sometimes with deadly consequences.
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Arevalo was a staunch defender of indigenous people's rights in the region.
She also practised a traditional form of singing medicine that the Shipibo believe removes negative energies from individuals and a group alike.
In 2015, a Canadian fatally stabbed a fellow tourist from England after the two drank ayahuasca together in a spiritual ceremony a few hours' drive from where Woodroffe was killed.
Funeral for Amazon healer Olivia Arevalo Lomas, after lynch mob kill Canadian Sebastian Woodroffe accused of shooting her
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A CANADIAN national has been lynched in the Peruvian Amazon after being accused of killing an 81-year-old medicine woman.
The 41-year-old was brutally murdered by residents of the remote Ucayali village just 24 hours after the death of the traditional healer of the Shipibo-Conibo tribe.
Facebook Sebastian Woodroffe was lynched in Peru after being accused of murder
Who was Sebastian Woodroffe?
Sebastian Woodroofe was a Canadian citizen who had been living in the Amazonian region of Ucayali.
The 41-year-old was allegedly a client of Olivia Arevalo, a traditional healer of the Shipibo-Conibo tribe who was killed on April 19.
Woodroffe had been accused by villagers of fatally shooting Arevalo near her home before escaping on a motorbike.
He had not been named by police as a suspect in her murder.
Central European News The Canadian citizen was accused of killing 81-year-old medicine woman Olivia Arevalo Lomas on Thursday
Why was the Canadian lynched in Peru?
Some villagers had blamed Arevalo’s murder on Woodroffe – despite never being named as a suspect.
They took matters into their own hands on Friday and lynched the Canadian national.
Police found Woodroffe’s body buried around half a mile from Arevalo’s home the following day.
His remains were discovered after a mobile phone recording of the lynching was shared on social media.
The video shows a man groaning in a puddle near a thatched-roof structure as another man puts a rope around his neck and drags him with others looking on.
Ricardo Palma Jimenez, lead prosecutor in the Amazonian region of Ucayali, confirmed that the man in the video was Woodroffe.
A post-mortem examination on the body confirmed he died by strangulation after receiving several blows across his body.
Central European News The covered dead body of Olivia Arevalo Lomas after she was fatally shot on her own doorstep
Who was Olivia Arevalo Lomas?
Olivia Arevalo Lomas was a traditional healer and human rights activist of the region’s Indigenous Shipibo-Conibo people.
Lomas was a well-known activist for the cultural rights of the Shipibo-Conibo indigenous group in the Peruvan Amazon.
She was shot twice at her home in the Victoria Gracia community in the Coronel Portillo province of the Ucayali department in Peru.
Local media claims the killer pulled up to Lomas’ house on a motorbike and called out her name.
When she appeared at the door, the shooter opened fire and Lomas was killed instantly, with the killer fleeing the scene.
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Who are the Shipibo-Conibo people?
The Shipibo-Conibo people are an indigenous tribe living along the Ucayali River in the Amazon rainforest in Peru.
With an estimated population of over 20,000, the Shipibo-Conibo represent approximately 8% of the indigenous registered population.
Formerly two groups, the Shipibo (apemen) and the Conibo (fishmen) eventually became one distinct tribe through intermarriage and communal ritual.
The Shipibo-Conibo people live in the 21st century while keeping one foot in the past, spanning millennia in the Amazonian rainforest.
Many of their traditions are still practiced, such as ayahuasca shamanism. Shamanistic songs have inspired artistic tradition and decorative designs found in their clothing, pottery, tools and textiles.
Some of the urbanized people live around Pucallpa in the Yarina Cocha, an extensive indigenous zone.
Others live in scattered villages over a large area of jungle forest extending from Brazil to Ecuador.
Funeral for Amazon healer Olivia Arevalo Lomas, after lynch mob kill Canadian Sebastian Woodroffe accused of shooting her
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368. You can WhatsApp us on 07810 791 502. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours.
Canadian man Sebastian Woodroffe, 41, was lynched in Peru on Thursday after villagers claimed he fatally shot dead revered Indigenous healer Olivia Arevalo, 81
A Canadian man studying hallucinogenic medicine in the Amazon rainforest has been killed by a Peruvian mob, who blame him for murdering a respected elderly shaman.
Sebastian Woodroffe, 41, traveled to Peru to study natural medicine and to seek enlightenment.
However his journey towards 'deeper meaning' took a dark turn when he allegedly shot Indigenous healer Olivia Arevalo Lomas, 81, dead.
Arevalo, a member of the Shipibo-Konibo tribe in the village of Victoria Gracia in northeast Peru, was killed on Thursday by two fatal shots.
The beloved shaman ran a lucrative healing center that offered ayahuasca - an Indigenous hallucinogenic mixture - to Westerners, according to CBC.
Woodroffe is believed to be one of her patients.
Peruvian authorities describe Woodroffe as her killer.
A graphic video reveals a man believed to be Woodroffe brutally dragged through mud by a rope around his neck as villagers look on
A graphic image on Facebook reveals Arevalo's body after she was fatally shot twice
Woodroffe was lynched by people of the Ucayali region of the Amazon rain forest who blame him for the healer’s death that same day.
Peruvian police said the Canadian man was brutally dragged by the neck through the rain forest.
Villagers claimed Woodroffe shot dead Indigenous healer Olivia Arevalo, 81, (pictured) on Thursday
A cellphone video released by local press displays a man covered in blood believed to be Woodroffe begging for mercy as he was dragged by a rope around his neck between thatch-roofed homes.
He is last seen in the video motionless on the muddy ground.
On Saturday officials dug up Woodroffe’s body from an unmarked grave in the forest 0.6miles away from Arevalo’s home.
'The body had been fully identified (as that of Sebastian Woodroffe) using fingerprints,' General Jorge Lam, the lead police officer in the double murder inquiry, said to The Guardian.
The double murder took place in the Ucayali region of northeast Peru in the Amazon forest
Ricardo Palma Jimenez, the head of the group of prosecutors in Ucayali, said that no arrests have been made in relation to Woodroffe’s death.
'We will not rest until both murders, of the Indigenous woman as well as the Canadian man, are solved,' he said in a phone interview to Reuters.
The Amazon rain forest has long attracted foreigners to experiment with ayahuasca – a dark colored and bitter brew made of a mixture of native plants that includes dimethyltryptamine (DMT), which can lead to psychedelic experiences.
Arevalo was a member of the Shipibo-Konibo tribe and ran healing center that offered ayahuasca - an Indigenous hallucinogenic mixture - to Westerners
Woodroffe had reportedly been to South America several times to study natural healing and plant remedies. His friends said he became more distant after trying ayahuasca
Peruvian police confirmed that Woodroffe's dead body was found half a mile away from Arevalo's home
The hallucinogenic cocktail, also known as yage, is a centuries old recipe used by Indigenous tribes in Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia as a cure for a variety of ailments.
It is not known to lead to violence.
However in 2015, a Canadian fatally stabbed a fellow tourist from England after the two drank ayahuasca together in a spiritual ceremony a few hours' drive from where Woodroffe was killed.
Woodroffe had been reportedly living in the Ucayali regional capital of Pucallpa for some time.
His friends told CBC that he first traveled to Peru in 2016 to learn about natural healing and plant remedies. He became more distant after trying ayahuasca.
His friend Yarrow Willard said that he’d return home from South America 'not broken, but troubled'.
He wanted to be an apprentice with the plant healer and aspired to become an addiction counselor using hallucinogenic medicine.
'The plant medicine I have the opportunity of learning is far deeper than ingesting a plant and being healed. It is not about getting "high" either. It is true some of the plants I will be learning about do have a perception-altering effect, but these are a few plants out of thousands I will be working with,' he wrote on the Indiegogo crowd-funding website seeking financial help for his studies.
'I am in this for the long haul. This is more than a 'job' to me. I want not only for people to recover ... I want to turn them on to the wonders of existence, and have them leave as a renewed friend and lover of this thing we call life,' he added.
Ronald Suárez, the highest authority Shipibo-Konibo tribe of 40,000 said Woodroffe's killers 'acted on the spur of the moment and resorted to traditional justice' according to the Guardian.
'But we are a peaceful people who have always lived in harmony with nature,' he added.
'We have little confidence in the police as, so often, crimes against us go unpunished,' he said.
Arevalo's murder has led to mourning throughout the village.
She was praised as a 'walking library of our traditional knowledge, the maximum expression of our culture'.
Her death follows a list of unsolved murders of Indigenous activists who are bombarded with death threats for protecting their land.
Sebastian Woodroffe, 41, was believed to be a patient of indigenous healer Olivia Arévalo, 81
Canadian lynched in Peru after being accused of shaman's death
A Canadian man was beaten and lynched in the Peruvian Amazon after local people accused him of killing an 81-year-old indigenous healer, a police officer leading the murder investigation told the Guardian.
Olivia Arévalo, a female shaman with the native Shipibo-Konibo people, was shot twice and died on Thursday near her home in the village of Victoria Gracia in Peru’s central Amazon region of Ucayali.
Some villagers blamed Arévalo’s murder on a Canadian citizen Sebastian Woodroffe, 41, who lived in the region and was believed to be one of her patients.
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Police found the Canadian’s body buried in a shallow grave about one kilometre (0.6 miles) from Arévalo’s home on Saturday.
A cameraphone recording of the lynching was released in the local press and on social media. The video shows a bloodied man crying out as he lies in a puddle in front of a wooden home with a thatched roof.
Two men put a rope or rubber hose around his neck and drag him along the ground until he goes limp and falls silent. A group of people, including children, look on.
General Jorge Lam, the police officer leading the double murder inquiry, said police were following several lines of investigation.
“The body had been fully identified (as that of Sebastian Woodroffe) using fingerprints,” he said.
Ronald Suárez, the highest authority of the 40,000-strong Shipibo-Konibo people, said the men responsible for the lynching had “acted on the spur of the moment and resorted to traditional justice”.
“But we are a peaceful people who have always lived in harmony with nature,” he insisted.
“We have little confidence in the police as, so often, crimes against us go unpunished,” said Suárez, who is president of the Shipibo Konibo and Xetebo council.
Arévalo was a “walking library of our traditional knowledge, the maximum expression of our culture,” he said, describing her death as “very painful”. The Shipibo Konibo people are known for their art and use of psychoactive plant brew Ayahuasca.
Arévalo’s killing follows the unsolved murders of indigenous activists who repeatedly faced death threats for protecting their ancestral lands.
Police are also examining a theory a possible motive may have been that Arévalo’s son owed money to the Canadian. There are also unconfirmed reports the killer may have been a gang member looking to collect a debt from Arévalo’s son.
Woodroffe is believed to have travelled to Peru from his home in Vancouver Island, Canada, to learn how use traditional medicine to treat drug addictions. He used the crowdfunding website Indiegogo to raise more than $2,000 to fund the trip.
Peru’s human rights Ombudsman’s office has called for an investigation, and tweeted its “empathic rejection of the lynching and murder of the alleged perpetrator of the murder of indigenous leader Olivia Arévalo”.
“Canada extends its deepest condolences following the reported assassination of Olivia Arévalo Lomas, an indigenous elder and human rights defender of the Shipobo-Konibo people in Peru’s Ucayali region,” a spokesman for Canada’s foreign affairs department, said.
“We are also aware that a Canadian was killed in a related incident. Consular services are being provided to the family of the Canadian.”
