# Escaped python kills 2 kids - something doesn't feel right here. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 6, 2013, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escaped-python-kills-2-kids-something-doesnt-feel-right-here/665511 "2013-08-06T18:35:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Reeses\_Monkey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reeses_monkey/32/2885_2.png) [@Reeses\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeses_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escaped-python-kills-2-kids-something-doesnt-feel-right-here/665511/41 "2013-08-07T13:33:40Z")
> [@Wile\_E](#): > > . Also, “sleepovers” usually mean all the kids sleep together. “Sleepovers” usually mean none of the kids sleep at all. At least in my experience. Maybe it’s different with girls. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escaped-python-kills-2-kids-something-doesnt-feel-right-here/665511/42 "2013-08-07T13:35:37Z")
Having handled more than a few, I know snakes aren’t _slimey_ per se but do they leave any kind of a traceable residue where they’ve been, particularly on a constriction victim? Yes, the aforementioned bite marks and saliva should be the most telltale sign as to whether it actually was the snake that did the strangling but would there be any other kind of residual evidence left behind too? Some natural oil like what’s found on our skin? ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escaped-python-kills-2-kids-something-doesnt-feel-right-here/665511/43 "2013-08-07T13:42:54Z")
> [@Soylent\_Juicy](#): > > The theory now is that the boys smelled like farm animals, thus triggering the snake’s hunger instinct. > > [Python said to have killed two New Brunswick boys may have been lured by their scent](http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/08/06/python_said_to_have_killed_two_new_brunswick_boys_may_have_been_lured_by_their_scent.html) That would definitely make the kids more enticing to the snake. Anyone who has taken care of a lot of snakes learns pretty quickly that it is a really good idea to wash your hands thoroughly after handling a lot of mice and before handling snakes that you aren’t feeding. They bite hands that smell like mice a lot more readily than clean hands. The big mystery to me is why a snake would kill two boys as prey and not eat one. I have seen snakes try to swallow large prey for hours before giving up. ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escaped-python-kills-2-kids-something-doesnt-feel-right-here/665511/44 "2013-08-07T16:03:15Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > If kids can sleep through smoke alarms for minutes on end ([cite](http://www.today.com/news/kids-can-sleep-through-smoke-alarms-experts-say-1C9010718)), Pah! My kid can’t sleep through me walking into her room quietly. ---
**Author:** ![Blackberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@Blackberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackberry)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escaped-python-kills-2-kids-something-doesnt-feel-right-here/665511/45 "2013-08-07T16:22:56Z")
I saw an episode of 20/20 or something once that showed video footage of kids sleeping through smoke alarms right in their rooms. It seems to be fairly common. The story was about a company that was making smoke detectors that instead of the normal sound, had a recording of their mom telling/yelling at them to wake up, and that worked better! I thought that was interesting. ---
**Author:** ![CannyDan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cannydan/32/548_2.png) [@CannyDan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CannyDan)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escaped-python-kills-2-kids-something-doesnt-feel-right-here/665511/46 "2013-08-07T16:43:15Z")
> [@Crotalus](#): > > The big mystery to me is why a snake would kill two boys as prey and not eat one. I have seen snakes try to swallow large prey for hours before giving up. Yep. One kid – it’s a rare but entirely possible tragedy. Two kids – ding!, ding!, ding! – bullshit alarms go off. Snakes’ jaws dis-articulate and they swallow by “walking” their upper jaws alternately outward over the prey then pulling it into the mouth. Left upper jaw stretches up and outward, then drops, engages teeth, and retracts. Then right upper jaw extends upward and out, engages, and retracts. Continue until prey goes down the hatch. But finding the right orientation wherein the prey presents as small a profile as possible, typically headfirst, takes trial and error on the part of the snake. Even appropriately-sized prey may be manipulated for lengthy periods before being ingested. Bite – test for swallow-ability – release – manipulate, turn – bite again – try to swallow again – lather, rinse, repeat. At least one kid, if not both, should be covered in saliva and bite punctures. As for screaming, the snake isn’t going to coil around a sleeping kid in some clandestine manner. It is going to bite, to keep the prey item from escaping. Then it will coil around and begin to constrict. Under ideal circumstances, this may take only seconds. But with very large snakes and very large prey, manipulating into a position where the chest is encircled and breathing is prevented can take longer. The initial bite would bring anyone out of the deepest sleep. I don’t know about these kids, but I sure would scream. Then, unless the snake was amazingly fortunate, the kid should have been able to scream several more times before the snake could work into a killing position. Had the snake grabbed onto a leg first, it might have taken tens of seconds, or even a minute or more, before chest constriction was accomplished. Plenty of time for screaming for help repeatedly. So yes, everything might have gone perfectly for the snake, one time. That’s the “rare but possible tragedy” scenario. But twice? Perfect hits, no (or not much) screaming, no effective struggles, no escapes? And then, after all that perfection in killing, to not eat either of them? I still call shenanigans! ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escaped-python-kills-2-kids-something-doesnt-feel-right-here/665511/47 "2013-08-07T16:55:22Z")
I can sort of understand why it would attack and kill them because they smell like livestock, and then decide they don’t taste like their smell, and change its mind. Maybe? ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escaped-python-kills-2-kids-something-doesnt-feel-right-here/665511/48 "2013-08-07T16:59:20Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#): > > I can possibly see a snake being able to crawl NEXT to a sleeping child without being detected. But how does a snake _encircle_ a non-drugged, non-ambulatory, non-mute, live human being in prone position, without detection? Not once, but twice. So improbable. First, I did start with “If”, trying to create a plausible scenario; I didn’t say I believed it. Second, as to your point; ever have a kid fall asleep in the car or in your bed when you have to wrap your arms around them, pick them up & carry them to their bed? I’ve done it, lots of times. Even occasionally scored bonus points by getting them out of their clothes into their PJs without waking them. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escaped-python-kills-2-kids-something-doesnt-feel-right-here/665511/49 "2013-08-07T17:04:53Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Just noticed [this article](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-07/canadian-police-launch-criminal-probe-after-snake-kills-two-chi/4869930) (from Australia!) with an additional detail or two that I hadn’t seen before. > > As mentioned above, third kid was store owner’s son, but it doesn’t say where he was. > > It seems to say the snake was in an enclosure on the _same_ floor as the kids. Using terminology that I believe is common everywhere but in America, it refers to the shop being on the “ground floor” while the snake was on the “first floor” (apparently, meaning the floor above the ground floor). As the building has only two floors (there’s a photo), that puts it on the same floor as the residence. > > The enclosure was a glass aquarium, not a cage. Apparently a large one, that went all the way up to the ceiling, where there was an opening at the top connected to the ventilation duct. So the snake went out there. No, in the US and I believe Canada, the ground floor and 1st floor are the same floor. The residence was on the second floor. The pet store was on the first, or ground floor. Oh, and even if the vent was directly over the glass enclosure, snakes can’t fly to the ceiling. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escaped-python-kills-2-kids-something-doesnt-feel-right-here/665511/50 "2013-08-07T17:23:51Z")
> [@picunurse](#): > > Oh, and even if the vent was directly over the glass enclosure, snakes can’t fly to the ceiling. snakes can climb and need to support their own weight going up a good number of feet. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escaped-python-kills-2-kids-something-doesnt-feel-right-here/665511/51 "2013-08-07T17:26:42Z")
So, what do you conspiracy theorists think really happened? You think the mom killed both her son’s friends, and then lured a 100 pound snake into the room and blamed it on the snake. I’m guessing the story stands as is and somehow the snake managed to strangle two kids. Stranger things have happened. ---
**Author:** ![Crocodiles\_And\_Boulevards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ee7513/32.png) [@Crocodiles\_And\_Boulevards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crocodiles_And_Boulevards)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escaped-python-kills-2-kids-something-doesnt-feel-right-here/665511/52 "2013-08-07T17:38:04Z")
I’m with the guy/gal who theorized that the snake actually constricted both kids simultaneously. Kids were sleeping right next to each other, snake slithers over their bodies, kids wake up and panic and snake wraps them both up and suffocates them at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escaped-python-kills-2-kids-something-doesnt-feel-right-here/665511/53 "2013-08-07T17:44:13Z")
> [@Crocodiles\_And\_Boulevards](#): > > I’m with the guy/gal who theorized that the snake actually constricted both kids simultaneously. Kids were sleeping right next to each other, snake slithers over their bodies, kids wake up and panic and snake wraps them both up and suffocates them at the same time. I wondered the same thing. Any other scenario is fishy to me too. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escaped-python-kills-2-kids-something-doesnt-feel-right-here/665511/54 "2013-08-07T17:57:24Z")
A basic assumption in my skepticism is that at least one of these children was small enough for the snake to swallow. A 13 foot, 100 pound python could have swallowed the 4 year old for sure, and probably the 6 year old. I can imagine a scenario in which the snake killed the larger child, tried for an hour or so to swallow it, gave up and killed the other, smaller child. At this point the snake would swallow the second child. This story is like a snake that normally eats rats crawling into an enclosure of rabbits and killing a few but not eating any. It just doesn’t compute. But strange things do happen. If the snake did it, it should be easy to ascertain. Both bodies will have hundreds of punctures from teeth and plenty of snake saliva somewhere. The “both kids at once” theory is somewhat more plausible, but it would still be really weird for the snake not to have consumed one of the bodies. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escaped-python-kills-2-kids-something-doesnt-feel-right-here/665511/55 "2013-08-07T18:04:46Z")
I wonder how long it will take for an autopsy report, and whether or not it will be released… I’m going to keep checking back here every so often to see if anyone posts an update of the deaths of those kids. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escaped-python-kills-2-kids-something-doesnt-feel-right-here/665511/56 "2013-08-07T18:10:14Z")
> [@CannyDan](#): > > Yep. One kid – it’s a rare but entirely possible tragedy. Two kids – ding!, ding!, ding! – bullshit alarms go off. > > Snakes’ jaws dis-articulate and they swallow by “walking” their upper jaws alternately outward over the prey then pulling it into the mouth. Left upper jaw stretches up and outward, then drops, engages teeth, and retracts. Then right upper jaw extends upward and out, engages, and retracts. Continue until prey goes down the hatch. > > But finding the right orientation wherein the prey presents as small a profile as possible, typically headfirst, takes trial and error on the part of the snake. Even appropriately-sized prey may be manipulated for lengthy periods before being ingested. Bite – test for swallow-ability – release – manipulate, turn – bite again – try to swallow again – lather, rinse, repeat. At least one kid, if not both, should be covered in saliva and bite punctures. Right. All this works well for most other prey, but the snake may not have been able to get past the shoulders, which is one reason why humans can be killed by constrictors, but not eaten. Perhaps the snake went for the bigger kid first, had a perfect strike and did not wake the 2nd kid, could not get past the shoulders, then went for the 2nd one, and was too exhausted to keep trying (living in a tank the snake was probably not in the best physical shape). As stated, there would be evidence of both attempts. Question for herpetologists - would a snake kill something and not immediately consume it? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escaped-python-kills-2-kids-something-doesnt-feel-right-here/665511/57 "2013-08-07T18:16:14Z")
> [@Soylent\_Juicy](#): > > The theory now is that the boys smelled like farm animals, thus triggering the snake’s hunger instinct. > > [Python said to have killed two New Brunswick boys may have been lured by their scent](http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/08/06/python_said_to_have_killed_two_new_brunswick_boys_may_have_been_lured_by_their_scent.html) Yeah, but then why didn’t it _eat_ them? And I would imagine after going to a petting zoo, they’d be stinky enough to take a shower. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escaped-python-kills-2-kids-something-doesnt-feel-right-here/665511/58 "2013-08-07T18:16:35Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > So, what do you conspiracy theorists think really happened? You think the mom killed both her son’s friends, and then lured a 100 pound snake into the room and blamed it on the snake. > > I’m guessing the story stands as is and somehow the snake managed to strangle two kids. Stranger things have happened. No “Mom” in the house. It was a single dad. He owned and ran the pet store. It was his snake. The boys were in the living room, while his own son was in the bedroom. If he killed the boys while trying to molest them, he could easily have brought the snake into the living room to make it appear the snake was responsible. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escaped-python-kills-2-kids-something-doesnt-feel-right-here/665511/59 "2013-08-07T18:19:56Z")
> [@picunurse](#): > > No “Mom” in the house. It was a single dad. He owned and ran the pet store. It was his snake. > The boys were in the living room, while his own son was in the bedroom. If he killed the boys while trying to molest them, he could easily have brought the snake into the living room to make it appear the snake was responsible. Eww. And I thought my theory was bad. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2013, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escaped-python-kills-2-kids-something-doesnt-feel-right-here/665511/60 "2013-08-07T18:20:47Z")
> [@picunurse](#): > > No “Mom” in the house. It was a single dad. He owned and ran the pet store. It was his snake. > The boys were in the living room, while his own son was in the bedroom. If he killed the boys while trying to molest them, he could easily have brought the snake into the living room to make it appear the snake was responsible. Sorry. Replace mom with dad. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escaped-python-kills-2-kids-something-doesnt-feel-right-here/665511.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/escaped-python-kills-2-kids-something-doesnt-feel-right-here/665511.md?page=4)