Woman Found Strangled By Python In House Filled With 140 Snakes

A woman has been discovered dead after having been strangled by a large reticulated python in a house that contained 140 snakes, according to the police.

Thirty-six-year-old Laura Hurst was discovered by the police at the property in Battle Ground, Indiana - unsurprisingly, a house that had been established as a snake collection - with the eight-foot-long python wrapped around her neck.

The Indiana State Police force spokesperson Kim Riley released a statement in which she confirmed that Hurst was keeping 20 of her own snakes at the property and would visit twice each week.

Riley said that Hurst was there 'checking on her snakes'. He added: "For whatever reason, she apparently got the snake out and she was doing what people do with snakes."

The snake house is owned by Benton County Sheriff Don Munson, who lives next door. He was the person who discovered Hurst on Wednesday evening.

The house has no permanent residents, apart from the snakes, and had been specially renovated and set up with the equipment to house the collection of snakes.

Unfortunately, Munson was too late to save her life. Medics were deployed to the scene, but could not resuscitate the woman.

Munson told the Journal & Courier that Hurst's death was a 'tragic accident with loss of human life'.

He went on to say that he would be 'being fully cooperative with everybody'.

He added: "I've given all information to the state police."

The police, Riley confirmed, responded to an emergency call and arrived at a property in Oxford at around 9pm.

They discovered a woman who was unresponsive with a reticulated python around her neck.

Riley said: "She appears to have been strangled by the snake."

The police then confirmed that a full autopsy will take place on Friday to determine her cause of death once and for all.

Until those results are available, the investigation is ongoing.

The Journal & Courier newspaper reported in 2001 that Sheriff Munson was a snake collector. He was a guest at a local primary school, where he showed the children a 13-foot-long snake.

At that time, he told the kids that he had 52 snakes in his garage.

It now looks as if he expanded the collection to include the house next door.

The investigation is ongoing.

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Topics: US News, Weird, Animals

Tom Wood

Tom Wood is a LADbible journalist and Twin Peaks enthusiast. Despite having a career in football cut short by a chronic lack of talent, he managed to obtain degrees from both the University of London and Salford. According to his French teacher, at the weekend he mostly likes to play football and go to the park with his brother. Contact Tom on [email protected]

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