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Peru’s justice ministry says two people have been arrested in connection with the death of a Canadian man in the Amazon rain forest.

The ministry issued a news release Monday saying a judge in the country’s Ucayali region ordered that the pair be detained for 72 hours in the investigation of the killing of Sebastian Woodroffe.

The release says once the preliminary detention is up, prosecutors will decide whether the two should be released or held while an investigation continues.

Authorities have said 41-year-old Woodroffe was dragged by the neck to his death shortly after people accused him of killing an octogenarian plant healer from the Shipibo-Konibo tribe of northeastern Peru.

Officials have said forensic experts were studying Woodroffe’s body to determine whether he had any involvement in the killing of Olivia Arevalo.

Prosecutors have said two suspects were identified in a video shot on a cellphone showing the moment Woodroffe was killed last week.

The Vancouver Island man posted online ahead of his trip to Peru, saying he hoped that an apprenticeship with a plant healer would help his goal of changing careers to become an addiction counsellor using hallucinogenic medicine.

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