Greg, I personally packed the shipment, and per Delta regualtions, they were DOUBLE BAGGED. They arrived at the zoo in the marked double bags. The tie wraps were cut off, so it would seem that he had opened the bag to view the animals.
Ray Hunter


The below is off the A.P.:

Friday May 21, 2004 9:03am

Little Rock (AP) - Police in Little Rock are investigating a connection between a man found dead last week in Little Rock and venomous African snakes found the next day in a wooden box about half a mile away.

Police confirmed that man from Scotland and the snakes were connected, but they wouldn't say how the man died or whether he had a snake bite.

Little Rock Zoo director Michael Blakely says police interviewed zoo officials yesterday and told them they were investigating an unusual death that may be linked to the snakes.

On May 13th, police found the body of 48-year-old Garrick Wales, of Kilmacolm, Scotland, in a rented vehicle near Little Rock National Airport. The case was classified as an undetermined death, and Wales' body was sent to the state Crime Laboratory.

The next day, a Little Rock resident discovered the box of snakes at a city intersection near downtown and took the snakes to the zoo. They were identified as a 14-inch-long twig snake, a six-foot-long green mamba, a four-foot-long black mamba, and a five-foot-long forest cobra.

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