US woman found dead with python wrapped around her neck, in house containing 140 snakes
- The woman was found unresponsive with a 2.4-metre python wrapped around her, in a home in Indiana filled with snakes
- The owner of the home, a local sheriff, said it was a ‘tragic accident’
Laura Hurst, 36, was found unresponsive on Wednesday night on the floor of a home in the northern Indiana town of Oxford, with the snake wrapped loosely around her neck, said Indiana State Police Sergeant Kim Riley.
The person who found her removed the reticulated python from her neck, but paramedics were unable to revive her, Riley said. An autopsy is scheduled for Friday.
“She appears to have been strangled by the snake,” Riley told the Journal & Courier. “We do not know that for a fact until after the autopsy.”
The home contained about 140 snakes, about 20 of which were owned by Hurst, who apparently kept them there and visited the Oxford home about twice weekly, Riley said. The home’s owner had renovated it to house a collection of snakes, he said.