Source:
https://scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3035867/us-woman-found-dead-python-wrapped-around-her-neck
World/ United States & Canada

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’
A file image of a python found in Thailand. Photo: AP

An American woman was found dead with a 2.4-metre-long (8-foot) python wrapped around her neck in a house containing at least 140 snakes, about 20 of which were owned by her, Indiana police said on Thursday.

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.

The reptiles were caged or otherwise secured inside the building, Riley said.

Property records show the house is owned by Benton County Sheriff Don Munson, who lives next door. He told the newspaper that he was the one who found Hurst. He called her death a “tragic accident with loss of human life”.

“I’ve given all information to the state police,” he said, adding that he was “being fully cooperative with everybody”.

In 2001, Munson told a local newspaper that he bred snakes for sale.