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Criminal investigation launched in Canada python deaths Criminal investigation launched in Canada python deaths
(about 3 hours later)
Police in the Canadian province of New Brunswick have launched a criminal probe into the apparent killing of two young boys by an escaped snake.Police in the Canadian province of New Brunswick have launched a criminal probe into the apparent killing of two young boys by an escaped snake.
Investigators hope to learn whether the owner of the pet shop from which the snake escaped followed all the rules. Investigators hope to establish if the African rock python's owner, who runs a pet store, had followed all the rules.
Connor and Noah Barthe, ages seven and five, were sleeping over with the son of the shop's owner in a flat above the Campbellton shop on Monday. Connor and Noah Barthe, aged six and four, were sleeping over with the son of the shop's owner in a flat above the Campbellton shop on Sunday night.
A python weighing 100lb (45kg) is suspected to have strangled them. The 4.3m (14ft) python, suspected of strangling the boys, has been put down.
Police said they believed the snake slipped out of its cage overnight and slithered up through a ventilation duct into the room where the boys slept. The serpent has been captured by police. At a press briefing on Tuesday, police said the bodies of the two boys had been removed from the flat on Monday night and taken to the local morgue.
Autopsies were due to be conducted on the boys' bodies on Tuesday. They were taken to the province's city of Saint John for post-mortem examinations.
'Unreal''Unreal'
The town's deputy mayor Ian Comeau said the shop, Reptile Ocean, had a licence and kept alligators, crocodiles and snakes when he toured it two years ago. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Seargent Alain Tremblay was quoted by the Associated Press as saying: "It's a criminal investigation. We're going to look at all avenues."
"Everything was according to our bylaws, to the provincial guidelines," he said. According to initial reports, the 100lb (45kg) snake escaped from the pet store.
Jean-Claude Savoie, the pet shop owner, said he thought the boys were sleeping until he saw that debris had fallen from a hole in the ceiling. But police said on Tuesday that the serpent had been kept in a glass cage inside the flat above the Reptile Ocean pet store.
"I turn the lights on and I seen this horrific scene," he said. Investigators believe it somehow escaped from the enclosure, before falling from a ceiling ventilation duct into the living room where the boys were sleeping.
The reptile was captured by police in the room where the boys were found, and later destroyed by a veterinarian.
Also at the briefing, the family of the victims described the boys' final day.
"They were two typical children," the statement said. "Their last day was spent playing with their friends and swimming in their small pool, and then had a barbeque."
The boys later went with their family to play with cats and dogs at the farm of Jean-Claude Savoie, Reptile Ocean's owner.
The two young brothers then slept over at their friend's flat above the pet shop.
Mr Savoie said he thought the boys were sleeping until he turned the lights on.
"I seen this horrific scene," he said.
Mr Savoie said the boys were his best friend's children and had come to visit his own son, who was sleeping in another room and was unharmed.Mr Savoie said the boys were his best friend's children and had come to visit his own son, who was sleeping in another room and was unharmed.
Mr Savoie has told reporters he had owned the African rock python for at least 10 years and that the snake was normally kept alone in its enclosure and not handled by anyone else. He has told reporters he had owned the python for at least 10 years. The snake was normally kept alone in its enclosure and not handled by anyone else, he said.
No charges have been filed in the case.