Did The Snake Do It? Autopsy to Reveal if Pet Python Crushed Man to Death
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - A 28-year-old Swedish professional snake handler was found dead in a house in Australia and police said Wednesday they are investigating whether he was crushed to death by his five-metre-long pet python.
The snake was discovered near Erik Attmarsson's body on Sunday in his home in Tanunda, about 50 kilometres north of the South Australia state capital, Adelaide, police spokesman Colin Haigh said. The Adelaide Advertiser newspaper reported that the man's body was found with marks on his face consistent with being crushed to death by a snake. But Haigh said the report was wrong.
"There's nothing to suggest the snake did it," he said.
Attmarsson worked as an exotic snake curator at a venom supplies business in Tanunda. The business is involved in milking hundreds of venomous snakes for the production of antivenin.
An autopsy was being done on Attmarsson's body to determine how he died. The results were expected later this week, Haigh said.
Snakes like pythons kill by constriction, gradually suffocating their prey by wrapping their coils around it and tightening the grip each time the prey exhales.
05/4/2005 4:57 EST
