And believe it or not, we do in fact have very competent detectives and coroners in Canada, even in New Brunswick.
Since it sounds like this was a very large snake, I am wondering if it could have pinned the boys down and asphyxiated them just from its weight and not because it was trying to constrict them.
I can imagine that if the snake fell through the ceiling and landed right on the boys they might have been killed by it pinning them down, as freakish as such an accident would be.
Jeff Corwin was on the Piers Morgan show this evening with a 99-pound python, and no way could a snake that size swallow a child. Kill a toddler? Maybe.
I don’t want anyone strung up until all the verdicts are in, but something smells really, really bad about this story. 
There have been millions of cases of 100 pound older brothers and sisters pinning down younger siblings and very few deaths reported this way (it wouldn’t surprise me if some of the readers here remember such an experience)
Having a hundred pound weight on you is nothing like a large constrictor tightening it’s coils. Adults have been killed by snakes that large, a child has no chance.
PastTense was referring to lavenderviolet’s speculation that perhaps no deliberate constriction occurred – rather, that they were killed in the same way as being hit by an inert object of the same size and weight. PastTense found this implausible.
Is it me, or is there something wrong with a parent that has a dangerous snake in a home with their kids? Frankly, I don’t get the appeal of reptiles as pets. A dog or cat I understand-these creatures respond positively to humans…but to a large reptile, you represent…lunch.
It’s only dangerous if there’s negligence- people have all sorts of potentially dangerous things in their homes. Hopefully those things are kept away from children.
Why wouldn’t they play along at this point? First of all, as you say, it IS at least remotely plausible that he’s actually telling the truth. And it’s only been a few days. They’re still weighing the evidence, evidence that will either corroborate his story or make him an official murder suspect.
Even if they never believed his story, they still have nothing to lose by pretending to believe him early on in the investigation. It’ll keep him talking. Once he’s an official suspect, he’ll quit talking. So they have nothing to lose by playing along this early in the game.
When my daughter was born 37 years ago, I had several rattlesnakes, a copperhead, and a 12-foot Burmese python in the house. I got rid of them pretty quickly, but for a short time they were in the house with her. My thoughts on keeping dangerous animals at home have changed completely. I wouldn’t do it now even with no kids around.
You seem awfully defensive about this, as if it’s insulting that anyone would question the story of someone who found 2 dead children in his home. So defensive, in fact, that you didn’t even bother to read the link, let alone the 50 comments that preceded yours, before concluding that the “mother” was telling the truth, and the rest of us were “conspiracy theorists.”
Had you actually read the comments, you’d have seen that NOBODY questioned the competency of Canadian detectives or coroners. In fact, quite the contrary:
No, I don’t think so. If you’re responsible with it it won’t hurt anybody. This guy blew it in a huge way, of course.
Whether cats respond positively to humans is a matter of some debate. 
But I think you’re wrong on all counts here: snakes don’t normally eat people and people do sometimes get killed by dogs.
Because they already have his story and it would be obvious if he was lying. I don’t know how the system works in Canada but I would assume he’s also hired a lawyer by now.
I would assume that he HASN’T hired a lawyer because he’s either innocent, or wants people to believe that he’s innocent.
And even if it was obvious to the police that he’s lying, two days is not enough time for them to process the crime scene, get the coroner’s report, interview herpetologists, etc., etc.
A lot of people are questioning whether or not a snake could have actually killed the kids. In fact that’s the premise of the OP: “something doesn’t feel right here.” I’m only pointing out that it’s entirely likely that the story, as reported, is factual.
I’m sorry for typing mom, instead of dad.
I think that the OP was saying what a few of us have been agreeing with: that the snake could have done it, but that it doesn’t seem “entirely likely”. Several of us with experience taking care of large constrictors have said that the snake killing two children and eating none, or killing two children it couldn’t swallow, would be very unusual behavior. The other thing a couple of us have added is that if the snake didn’t do it, it will be obvious and provable.
So you think it’s more likely that some guy kills his son’s friends who are sleeping over and tries to blame the snake?
The crazy is strong in this thread.
That’s essentially what I was going for. Someone even suggested he may have molested the kids, then killed them, and then blamed the snake.
I think that people killing children and coming up with outlandish explanations is a lot more common than large constrictors killing children. I don’t know what happened, but I know a fair amount about snake behavior. I also know, that unlike what someone said above, their behavior is much more predictable than that of humans. That’s one of the reasons I was able to extract venom from thousands of snakes in a lab and captured hundreds of them in the wild without any injuries: I knew what they would do.
If this happened as it is currently being reported, it would amount to a single data point on snake behavior that differs from all of my experience with them. I don’t think that’s impossible, but I would find it very surprising.
People kill more people than snakes do.
And I agree with everyone else that the story sounds atypical, but bites and saliva will be everywhere if it really was the snakes.
Of course, he could have set it up, murder by snake.
To cover up molesting them, or just for the fun of watching.
Take the kids to play with animals, run them around and tire them out so they sleep soundly.
Then send them to bed without mentioning baths, get out the night vision goggles, and Release the Snake!
FWIW, a skeptical report on my local news site.