The horrifying story of two Canadian boys who were strangled to death by a snake captured international headlines on Monday.
The two boys -- Noah Barthe, 5, and Connor Barthe, 7 -- were sleeping in a Campbellton, New Brunswick apartment when the snake escaped its enclosure and strangled them. Though reports originally indicated that the snake slithered up from the Reptile Ocean pet store below, officials now believe that the snake was housed in the upstairs apartment.
As the Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigate the tragic incident, authorities euthanized the 14 to 16-foot-long African rock python in order to garner more information about the attack.
Jean-Claude Savoie, who owned the Reptile Ocean store and the apartment above it, said he was close to the Barthe children, the sons of his best friend. He told authorities that he didn't hear any screaming.
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“At first, I didn’t even realize," Savoie said of finding them on Monday. "I thought they were sleeping until I seen the hole in the ceiling, everything had fallen and I turned the lights on and I seen this horrific scene.”
Snake expert Johan Marais told The Globe and Mail that the snake attack was "very puzzling," as pythons usually bite their prey before strangling them.
“If it grabs a kid, you’re going to have more than enough time to scream. You cannot be asleep and be bitten by a python and strangled. That’s impossible. You’re going to wake up instantly,” he said.
Another expert, Neil Ford, said the reptile could have wrapped its coils around both children at the same time "and they were just something to hold onto."
Meanwhile, RCMP are looking into whether Savoie had the right permits to house such a reptile.
"The investigator is still looking into whether he had all the rights to keep such (an) animal," Sgt. Alain Tremblay said. "There are a lot of things to look at. We're just at the first step of this investigation."
