An African rock python named Tiny, a pet owned by an exotic animal enthusiast, wrapped itself around the man, causing suffocation, according to the coroner. Tiny was 2.4 meters (8 feet) long.
Babs, Dan Brandon’s mother, discovered him dead in his Hampshire bedroom with a python hidden nearby.
Andrew Bradley, the coroner for northeast Hampshire, gave Brandon’s death a misadventure judgment and stated that he thought the python played a “key role” in it. He made it clear that while he did not think the snake had been hostile toward its owner, the most likely scenario was that the reptile had been affectionately coiling around him.
On August 25, Brandon, age 31, passed away in the community of Church Crookham. In addition to Tiny, his bedroom was home to 12 tarantulas and an additional 9 snakes.
Brandon was described as a responsible snake owner who cherished his critters during the Basingstoke inquest. Tiny’s mother said during the inquest that he occasionally displayed aggression.
She described how she would become irate, hiss, and threaten to hit. For heavens’ sake, Tiny, he [Brandon] would say. When she was acting very well, he would say to me, “Mum, you’ve got to come and look.” I don’t believe Tiny ever bit him.
Compared to the other snakes, Tiny made him more cautious. She is really strong, he claimed. She was so powerful and unexpected that he had stopped wearing her around his neck.
She has been taking care of the snakes ever since her son passed away. She displayed a hand wound she had recently sustained as a result of being bitten by one of the snakes.
Since the age of 15, her son, she claimed, had maintained snakes. Tiny was in Brandon’s hands once he had it. She was his youngster. She said, “She adored him, and the snake would strike at her as if to say, ‘Leave him alone,’ if she were in her son’s bedroom with him.
Babs Brandon testified in court that she was preparing dinner the night her son died when she heard a crash in his bedroom. He was face down on the floor, and Tiny was missing from its vivarium when she discovered him. Brandon, a landscaper, was not able to be saved despite the paramedics being called. She admitted to the court that she was unaware of his cause of death.
When Dr. Adnan al-Badri performed a postmortem, he discovered that Brandon’s lungs were four times heavier than they should have been and that he had had pinpoint hemorrhages in one of his eyes, both of which were indicators of asphyxia. Additionally, he had recently broken a rib.
It’s probable that pressure was applied to the neck or chest, which led to the man asphyxiating, according to Badri. He had no marks on his neck or chest, though.
A veterinarian and snake keeper named Prof. John Cooper claimed to have visited Brandon’s bedroom and checked Tiny. He claimed to have been amazed by Brandon’s snake-keeping practices. He was a seasoned herpetologist who took good care of his reptiles and would have gotten along well with them. For macho reasons, he didn’t have them.
Cooper explained that the key was to start with the tail and that Brandon would have known how to untangle a python that had coiled around him. Although he said it was rare for snakes kept in captivity to produce major wounds, he admitted to the court that an African rock python had poked him in the eye. After looking at the snake, he put it back in its vivarium and said that Tiny had bitten him “defensively.”
It was a hot day, so he claimed he didn’t think Tiny had strangled Brandon or wrapped itself around him for protection, as is thought to have happened when a python killed two boys in Canada in 2013.
The coroner declared that he did not think the snake had acted violently toward Brandon. “The most likely scenario is that Tiny was dating Dan,” he stated. Without a doubt, she was entangling herself with him. There was a time when she either unexpectedly grabbed him, tripped him up, or used some other method to restrain him. The shock of him falling or the shock of his reaction may be what causes her to flee at that point. I have to admit that Tiny played a part in Dan’s passing.
He claimed that at a “moment of serenity,” Brandon was “communing” with the snake, but for some reason, it “went bad.” “His interaction with Tiny has caused him to asphyxiate.”
Babs Brandon claimed outside of court that she was continually reliving the evening of her son’s death. “All the family wanted was answers to our questions, but I don’t know if we have them yet or ever will,” she said.