WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A 36-year-old woman was found dead with a Python python around her neck at a house in Indiana in the central western United States housing about 140 of these reptiles.
State police spokeswoman Sergeant Kim Riley said in a statement that Laura Hearst's body was found Wednesday at a house in Oxford.
Hearst, from Battle Ground, Indiana, was found around her neck, a 2.4-meter clip snake. Medics tried to revive her but their efforts failed.
"It seems that the snake strangled her during her sleep, but we will wait for the results of the autopsy to confirm this," Riley told the Lafayette Journal and Courier.
The house, which houses the snake group, is owned by Benton County official Don Monson, who lived next door. Hearst kept about 20 of its snakes there.