‘Vicious’ python kills two sleeping children, aged 5 and 7, after escaping from N.B. pet store

Tristin Hopper | 13/08/05 | Last Updated: 13/08/05

Google Streetview   The snake apparently escaped Reptile Ocean, an urban zoo in Campbellton.

Two children are dead in Campbellton, New Brunswick after they were strangled to death by an escaped python while on a sleepover in an apartment over Reptile Ocean, an exotic pet retailer.
Both victims, aged 5 and 7, were reportedly brothers and on a sleepover with the son of Reptile Ocean’s owner, Jean-Claude Savoie.



As soon as he heard about the tragedy, Tim Thomas, a former Reptile Ocean employee, said he called Mr. Savoie’s next-door neighbour and “best friend,” Mandy Trecartin, to find out what had happened.
“She told me straight up, it was her two children that died; I didn’t know what to say, I was in shock,” he said, adding that he last saw the two children on Sunday night.

The snake is an African rock python and is between 14 to 16 feet long, according to Mr. Thomas. Native to sub-saharan Africa, the species is non-venomous, but is known to devour whole antelopes in the wild.

Open since 1995, Reptile Ocean used to be a small zoo before it shifted its operations purely to retail and incorporated the property’s upstairs animal enclosures into an apartment for Mr. Savoie.
The snake occupied one enclosure, while the other two were used for crocodiles.

“How he got loose, I don’t know, because ever since Jean-Claude got full custody of his child, every cage had two locks on it, and one of them was a master lock and the keys to that were hung up in the laundry room,” said Mr. Thomas.

“Jean-Claude loved them kids and he would have never, ever put them in danger at all,” he added.
Global News reached Mr. Savoie by phone on Monday. In a five-minute interview posted to the network’s website he explained that the “vicious” snake, which was rarely handled, escaped through a ventilation system and fell through the ceiling of the children’s room.

Still in shock, he said he was baffled how the snake could have made its way through such a narrow pipe and said he discovered the children dead on Monday morning when he woke up to check on them.

“They were sleeping; they didn’t even open their eyes or nothing,” he said.

New Brunswick RCMP reported that they were called to the store’s Pleasant St. address just after 6:30 a.m. on Monday. The snake “is in RCMP possession,” according to a Monday statement by police.

Police did not confirm the names of the two children and said they have not determined whether any charges will be laid in connection with the deaths. ”That’s going to be part of the investigation,” said Cst. Jullie Rogers-Marsh with the New Brunswick RCMP.

The property, which is only one block away from Campbellton city hall, remained roped off as of Monday afternoon, according to neighbours. The bodies of the two boys are scheduled to undergo an autopsy on August 6.

“I can only assume the snake … constricted the one child, the other child I can only assume tried to help that child and got constricted into the whole mess,” said Bry Loyst, curator of Ontario’s Indian River Reptile Zoo, speaking to the National Post on Monday.

As Reptile Ocean’s Facebook page became barraged with criticism on Monday, an unknown page administrator replied that the incident was “a terrible accident without a meaning” and chastised commenters for jumping to conclusions.

“There is nobody to blame. The snake broke out of its enclosure. The enclosure locked. There was no negligence. This is a terrible accident,” reads a post written just after 5 p.m. local time.
By Monday evening, the page was shut down.