Investigation Continues: Sweat-Lodge Case Probed as Homicide
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- by Glen Cereno ~ The Arizona Republic
The agency probing the deaths of two people at a Sedona-area sweat-lodge ceremony, hosted by a self-help guru last week, says it is now treating the case as a homicide investigation.
Yavapai County Sheriff Steve Waugh said his office is focusing the inquiry on James Arthur Ray and anyone else involved in organizing the ceremony.
The sheriff said the investigation has turned up several people who said they fell ill at previous Ray events beyond one in 2005 that was disclosed this week by fire officials.
“At this point in the investigation, there are indications it was not accidental,” Waugh said at a press conference in Prescott. “We feel that there is some culpability.”
Investigators had been looking at the case as accidental deaths. The sheriff said investigators haven’t yet spoken to Ray, who has been in California conducting previously scheduled wealth seminars.
Ray said on his website that he is praying for the victims and told an audience earlier this week that he had hired his own investigative team to look into the incident.
Waugh said his investigators spoke to Ray’s group Wednesday but wouldn’t say what was discussed.
“He may never talk to us,” Waugh said of Ray. “That’s his right.”
Ray hasn’t been available for comment, and a spokesman declined to discuss the investigation.
Investigators served a search warrant Wednesday at the offices of James Ray International in Carlsbad, Calif. Waugh said they were looking for medical records on the ceremony’s participants and information about any previous sweat-lodge events. They also sought documentation that Ray and his associates had any expertise in conducting such ceremonies.
The lead Yavapai County investigator, David Rhodes, declined to say what was found in the search. Results of another search at the Angel Valley Retreat Center west of Sedona have been sealed. Ray had rented the retreat for his five-day Spiritual Warrior program. Some people paid more than $9,000 to attend.
Waugh said that Ray is a “person of interest” in the case and that the couple who own the retreat are being considered as witnesses. He said people were hired to build the sweat lodge; the office didn’t have complete names for them.
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