Indiana Woman’s Body Found With 8ft Python Wrapped Around Neck

Police say a mother has been found dead with an 8-foot-long (2.4-meter-long) python wrapped around her neck at a snake-laden home in northern Indiana.

Authorities said Laura Hurst of Battle Ground, Indiana, could have been squeezed to death at the Oxford property belonging to Benton County Sheriff Donald E. Munson where 140 snakes were kept.

The 36-year-old was found unresponsive on the floor Wednesday night with the reticulated python wrapped loosely around her neck.

‘She appears to have been strangled by the snake,’ Indiana State Police Sgt. Kim Riley said. ‘We do not know that for a fact until after the autopsy.’

Hurst’s Facebook profile suggests she may have been a mother-of-two. Images from 2012 show her getting married.

Facebook states she worked as a Harness Engineering Build Techician at Kirby Risk in Lafayette.

Riley said the person who found her removed the reticulated python, but medics were unable to revive her.

The woman’s cause of death remains under investigation, with an autopsy scheduled Friday.

Sheriff Munson called it a ‘tragic accident with loss of human life’ and speaking to the Lafayette Journal & Courier said he was ‘being fully cooperative with everybody’.

‘I’ve given all information to the state police,’ Munson added.