Police have found the gun that belonged to Sebastian Woodroffe, the Canadian who was killed by villagers because he allegedly killed their cultural leader and shaman Olivia Arévalo last Thursday in Ucayli’s Victoria Gracia community.
El Popular reported that the gun, a Taurus nine-millimetre short barrel, was found close to where Woodroffe was buried.
Woodroffe had bought the gun off police officer Roberto Utia Quispe on April 3 for 3,000 soles (around $925) and the officer still had a copy of the purchase agreement. Utia told the police and the court that it wasn’t his service gun, but a private one which Woodroffe said he needed for personal defence.
Ricardo Jiménez, the president of the Ucayali attorney’s board, told MSN News how it could help clear up the case.
“We now need to match the cartridges found at the scene of Arévalo’s death to check if they correspond to the gun,” he said. “If they match, we will know that this was the gun that killed Arévalo.”
They have already sent the gun for ballistic analysis, but the results won’t be back for a couple of weeks.
Servindi, a news source specialising in indigenous groups, reported that when Woodroffe’s body was found, tests were carried out to check for gunshot residue. Although the results have come back negative, the authorities claim that this is because the body was buried for 48 hours before being found, making it unlikely for any residue to have remained.
The police also found the motorbike Woodroffe used to travel to San Pablo de Chusmo, which had been hidden two kilometres away. The bike had been taken to pieces in an attempt to make it undiscoverable, but Jiménez affirmed that they found the chassis and the numberplate with which they could trace the bike.
America TV reported that the police were working with the single hypothesis that Woodroffe’s motive was that he was owed 14,000 soles (about $4,320) by Arévalo’s son. Jiménez told the online paper that witnesses had claimed that the Canadian had come to Arévalo’s house in search of his son to ask for the money, but upon not finding him, proceeded to shoot the 81-year-old leader of theShipibo-Konibo indigenous tribe.
They have asked her son Julián to come forward to help clear up the events surrounding the crimes, but he has not yet come forward.