{"id":34001,"date":"2026-06-18T20:50:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T20:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/34001\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T20:50:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T20:50:16","slug":"adelaide-fashion-icons-death-after-taking-magic-mushrooms-to-be-probed-at-inquest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/34001\/","title":{"rendered":"Adelaide fashion icon’s death after taking magic mushrooms to be probed at inquest"},"content":{"rendered":"

The death of an Adelaide fashion industry icon who suffered a cardiac arrest after taking magic mushrooms as an alternative treatment will be probed at a coronial inquest.<\/p>\n

Carol Foord, the founder of Toffs and Wild Child Style Lab, fought breast cancer and symptoms of motor neurone disease before her death in June 2024.<\/p>\n

She had sought out magic mushrooms as an alternative treatment for anxiety and, in the hours after ingesting the substance, went into cardiac arrest and needed resuscitation at home.<\/p>\n

She was taken to hospital, where she died a short time later.<\/p>\n

Last year, her family went public with her story to warn others about the risks of alternative treatments.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Carol Foord’s siblings (from left) Jenny Howland, Barbara Komazec and Michael Foord. (ABC News: Justin Hewitson)<\/p>\n

The family also raised questions about the events leading up to her death, with a post-mortem report unable to pinpoint the cause of her heart failure.<\/p>\n

Ms Foord’s sister, Barbara Komazec, welcomed the coroner’s decision to hold an inquest, which is due to begin next Tuesday.<\/p>\n

“I feel like there needs to be more investigation into her death because there’s so many abnormalities throughout,” she said.\"A<\/p>\n

Barbara Komazec said her sister’s case highlighted the dangers associated with undertaking alternative treatments. (ABC News: Justin Hewitson)<\/p>\n

“It’s important for Carol’s sake because she definitely didn’t want to die that day.”<\/p>\n

Psilocin detected in post-mortem<\/p>\n

The post-mortem report, supplied to the family last year, said “there were no acute findings to account for sudden death”.<\/p>\n

It recorded Ms Foord’s cause of death as “cardio respiratory failure on a background of motor neurone disease and substance use (psilocin and diazepam)”.<\/p>\n

\"Barbara<\/p>\n

Barbara Komazec (left) with her sister, entrepreneur and businesswoman Carol Foord. (Supplied: Barbara Komazec)<\/p>\n

Diazepam is used to treat anxiety, while psilocin is a hallucinogen found in magic mushrooms.<\/p>\n

Samples showed both substances were present in Ms Foord’s blood when she died.<\/p>\n

The report also noted an alternative health practitioner was reportedly with her when she “deteriorated”.<\/p>\n

The practitioner was later charged with supplying or administering a controlled drug to another person, but the charge was dropped at a hearing in April 2025.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A family photo with Carol Foord, third from left, as a young child. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

In an email to Ms Komazec, a SA Police detective said there was insufficient evidence for anyone to be charged.<\/p>\n

‘Something needs to happen’<\/p>\n

According to a 2024 National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre study, deaths caused by magic mushrooms are rare and occur mostly due to traumatic accidents or self-injury while under the influence of the drug.<\/p>\n

But Ms Komazec said psilocin use still carried serious risk, and her sister’s case highlighted the dangers associated with undertaking alternative treatments.<\/p>\n

She hoped the inquest would focus on how to prevent similar cases from happening in the future and suggested stricter regulation and more focus on public awareness as possible improvements.<\/p>\n

“Something needs to happen so this type of thing doesn’t happen again,” she said.\"A<\/p>\n

A memorial plaque for Carol Foord on a bench at Heywood Park in Unley. (ABC News: Justin Hewitson)<\/p>\n

Ms Komazec also wanted the coroner to examine what information was given to medical professionals who treated Ms Foord prior to her death.<\/p>\n

They had concerns medics did not know she had ingested magic mushrooms.<\/p>\n

Two years after her sister’s death, Ms Komazec said the family was still grappling with the circumstances.<\/p>\n

“It’s been hard,” she said.<\/p>\n

“You never stop thinking about it when something like this happens.<\/p>\n

“I know they say time heals but I think you never forget, it’s always there.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The death of an Adelaide fashion industry icon who suffered a cardiac arrest after taking magic mushrooms as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[395,29965,29963,29960,14339,4746,1109,2717,29966,18281,18280,29967,29964,29961,29962],"class_list":["post-34001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-adelaide","tag-adelaide","tag-alternative-therapies","tag-barbara-komazec","tag-carol-foord","tag-coroner","tag-coronial-inquest","tag-court","tag-death","tag-diazepam","tag-magic-mushrooms","tag-mushrooms","tag-national-drug-and-alcohol-research-centre","tag-psylocibin","tag-toffs","tag-wild-child-style-lab"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}