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Eight-foot pet python kills 2-year-old girl in bedroom
AP Photo
Police measure a Burmese python after removing it from a home in Oxford, Fla.
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Published: July 2, 2009
OXFORD, Fla. -- A Burmese python more than 8 feet long broke out of a terrarium and strangled a 2-year-old girl in her bedroom yesterday at a central Florida home, authorities said.
Shaiunna Hare was already dead when paramedics arrived at about 10 a.m., Lt. Bobby Caruthers of the Sumter County Sheriff's Office said.
Charles Jason Darnell, the snake's owner and the boyfriend of Shaiunna's mother, discovered the snake missing from its terrarium and went to the girl's room, where he found it on the girl, who had bite marks on her head, Caruthers said. Darnell, 32, stabbed the snake until he was able to pry the child away.
Authorities removed the snake from the home yesterday afternoon after obtaining a search warrant. Once outside the small, tan home, bordered by cow pastures, the snake was placed in a bag then inside a dog crate. The snake was still alive.
Darnell did not have a permit for the snake, which would be a second-degree misdemeanor, said Joy Hill, a spokeswoman with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. He has not been charged, but Caruthers said investigators were looking into whether there was child neglect or if any other laws were broken.
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