Two-Year-Old Girl Strangled To Death By Pet Python

July 2, 2009 by tiffanyb
Filed under: News

A two-year-old girl in Florida was strangled to death by an 8ft python as she lay sleeping her bed.

In horribly tragic news, two-year-old Shaiunna Hare was strangled by a pet python that got loose in the home. The python, which was kept as a pet by Charles Jason Darnell, who was Shaiunna’s mother’s live-in boyfriend, escaped from it’s cage after being put away for the night.

Charles went to check on the little girl when he noticed that the reptile had gone missing. He found the python wrapped around the little girl with bit marks on her head from the snake. He quickly started stabbing the snake until he was able to pry the two-year-old from the snake, but it was too late.

Emergency services was called, but Shaiunna was dead before they got there. it is now known who called emergency services, but the caller had this to say to the dispatcher, “The baby’s dead! Our stupid snake got out in the middle of the night and strangled the baby… She got out of the cage last night and got into the baby’s crib and strangled her to death.”

The snake was taken out of the home alive by the emergency services. The snake will be placed with someone who has an actual permit for keeping pythons until a further investigation is launched. Authorities are looking into whether this was just a tragic accident or a case of child neglect. Darnell did not have a permit for the snake.

Burmese pythons can reach a weight of 200 pounds (90kg) and a length of 26 feet (8 metres). There have been at least 12 cases in the United States of people dying from a python. Four of those people were children.