KILLER PYTHON WAS KEPT IN APARTMENT – NOT STORE BELOW
A shocking photo released today shows the two boys cleaning out the python’s snake cage.
Connor and Noah Barth are seen here mopping out a massive glass enclosure that held some large reptiles at Jean-Claude Savoie’s store. (NY Daily News)
The owners may face manslaughter charges.
The Calgary Herald reported:
A 45-kilogram python blamed in the strangling deaths of two young brothers was being kept inside the second-floor apartment, not the pet store below it as authorities had previously stated.
The African rock python apparently escaped from its enclosure, slithered through a ventilation system and fell through the ceiling into the room where the young brothers were sleeping, authorities said Tuesday.
Autopsies on Noah Barthe, 5 and his brother Connor Barthe, 7, were being performed Tuesday.
A snake expert said it was possible that the python was spooked and simply clung to whatever it landed on. Police are treating the deaths in Campbellton, New Brunswick, as a criminal investigation.
The brothers had been visiting the apartment of a friend whose father owned an exotic pet store on the floor below, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Alain Tremblay said at a news conference in Campbellton.