They say that no mothers should bury their child. Even after two years after her son had died, Ingeborg Oswald of Northern California is still having a hard time coming to terms with his passing. However, for the sake of other teens who may be thinking of doing the same thing her son did, she shared her story to CNN for the first time.
It all began when Kyle Nolan, then 18, wanted to go to Peru and into the Amazon jungle to go after a medicine known as ayahuasca. Like many teens his age, he was struggling finding his own identity, especially since he had triplets, a girl named Marion and a boy named Kevin, who were described as overachievers.
Kevin had already dropped out of college and was living with his mother when he came across the psychedelic drug. According to his own research, the brew may be what he needs for self-discovery.
His mother tried her best to talk him out of it, but he was very persistent. After paying $2,000 so he can participate in a ceremony in a shaman center, he packed his bags and left for Peru by himself.
In August 2012, Kyle arrived in Peru and traveled to the center within Amazon. However, the following days, the mother can no longer get hold of her son. She tried calling the Shimbre Shamanic Center who mentioned that Kyle had taken off and never returned. But the mother didn't believe such claims, so she and her daughter Marion personally went to Peru to request for a police search. They didn't find any lead.
They went back to the United States, leaving the Peru police to continue with their investigation. Barely a week, though, they received information that Kyle had actually died after taking too much of the medicine. However, the shaman, panicking, tried to cover up the incident by burying him somewhere far from the center and telling the rest of the participants he wasn't feeling well.
Although two autopsies of the dug-up body turned out inconclusive, it was still cremated and the shaman Jose Piñeda and two others were sentenced to five years in prison for homicide and lying to police authorities.
Oswald, through the CNN interview, advises anyone who wants to participate in the ceremony to conduct a very thorough research, considering there's still very little known about ayahuasca. Foreign interest on it may only cause an increase of fly-by-night shaman centers with poor or zero medical supervision.
