Benton County Sheriff Donald Munson lived next door, as well as owning “The Reptile House”, and also owned the collection of snakes inside, he told the Lafayette Journal & Courier.
The sheriff frequently checked on the reptiles, but this time he made a startling discovery: an eight-foot-long python — wrapped around a woman’s neck.
The woman, identified as 36-year-old Laura Hurst, died Wednesday night after the snake apparently strangled her, the Indiana State Police said.
Medics who responded to the scene “attempted life saving measures” but could not revive her, the state police said.
