The inquest into the death of Jarrad Antonovich, who passed away after drinking ayahuasca and partaking in a “kambo” ritual at a spiritual retreat in northern New South Wales, has been adjourned after new witnesses emerged. This development has provided fresh insights into the circumstances surrounding Antonovich’s prolonged, public, and agonizing death.

Jarrad Antonovich’s death occurred at a six-day spiritual festival held on a property near Kyogle in October 2021. Despite the inquest beginning in May 2023, it was adjourned last year after the police obtained a list of attendees at the Dreaming Arts festival. This enabled them to speak to more witnesses and gather additional information about Antonovich’s death.

Upon resuming last week, the court heard from two witnesses who reported that ceremony participants were urged not to discuss Antonovich’s death by the festival’s spiritual leader, Soulore “Lore” Solaris, and members of his inner circle, known as “guardians”.

Solaris’s barrister, Alex Radojev, denied these accounts. The inquest was set to hear from Solaris and the man who led the kambo ritual, Cameron Kite, this week. However, the counsel assisting the crown, Peggy Dwyer SC, indicated that the police had been contacted by several people offering further information after last week’s hearings.

“At the commencement of the inquest, the counsel assisting team did not have complete information in relation to who attended the retreat where Jarrad passed away and, particularly, who at the retreat knew what was happening to Jarrad at what times, and why certain decisions about his care were being made – or not made,” she said.

“That has made it difficult but, as a result of the investigation and evidence gathered, the picture is now becoming clearer.”

Dwyer acknowledged the strain the inquest had placed on witnesses and the Antonovich family, stating that while further prolonging the process was “regrettable”, the new information made it necessary.

“An inquest is not conducted to condemn a lifestyle or life choices,” Dwyer said. “But it is an important part of the coroner’s function to prevent death, if at all possible.”

Ayahuasca, a plant-based psychedelic, and kambo, the toxic secretions of an Amazonian frog, are traditionally used as medicines by Indigenous peoples of South America and were illegal at the time of Antonovich’s death. However, in recent years, they have gained a community of practitioners and enthusiastic adherents around Australia, particularly in the northern rivers region of NSW.

This region has long been a mecca for those seeking alternative lifestyles. The community came under the spotlight last May when two inquests were held back-to-back – Antonovich’s and that of Natasha Lechner, who died at the age of 39 in a kambo ceremony in Mullumbimby in 2018. The findings into Lechner’s death are scheduled to be handed down on Friday.

The Antonovich inquest has previously heard medical evidence that he died of a perforated oesophagus and will seek to decide if the fatal tear was caused by the excessive vomiting associated with purging often induced by ayahuasca and kam