The Maryland man who was found dead in his home in January with over 100 venomous and non-venomous snakes around him died from a snake bite, officials confirmed on Wednesday.
The Charles County man was found dead on the floor by his neighbours after they didn’t see the 49-year-old man for more than a day, local reports said then.
The neighbours then informed the police and officers conducted a wellness check at the home in the 5500 block of Raphael Drive in Pomfret around 6pm.
At the time, the police had said that there were no signs of foul play in the man’s death.
The officials made an entry into his home through the front door and he was pronounced dead on the scene.
A spokesperson from the office of the chief medical examiner confirmed that the “cause of death is snake envenomation and the manner of death is an accident.”
The man lived in a house with 124 snakes, including a 14-foot-long Burmese python.
The animal control officials took the snakes away then and said that they had not encountered “this kind of thing before.”
CBS Local Baltimore reported that the police said that Charles County animal control coordinated rescue efforts for the reptiles with assistance from experts from North Carolina and Virginia.
Police had said that the snakes were of different varieties and “in tanks situated on racks.”
The man had kept snakes of breeds like pythons, rattlesnakes, cobras and black mambas.
Police had to call in experts to separate the venomous ones from the non-venomous ones.
NBC reported that the non-venomous snakes were taken to Virginia by a licensed handler while the venomous snakes were headed to North Carolina with a licensed handler.
Owning venomous snakes in Maryland is illegal, according to the local law.
