A 44-year-old woman was killed by a 25-foot python in Indonesia after the giant snake attacked her while she was tending to cattle, with her husband later finding her body partly inside the reptile’s mouth just metres from their home.
Elisabet Yamalau had stepped outside to tend to her farm animals in North Maluku on Tuesday afternoon when the python, concealed in undergrowth, sank its fangs into her leg and wrapped itself around her body. Her husband, Benyamin Lanto, 52, went looking for her that evening when she failed to return home, discovering her motionless body halfway inside the snake’s mouth. In a desperate attempt to save her, he hacked the python to death, but by the time he had removed the creature’s head, Elisabet was already dead. Villagers who heard the commotion rushed to the scene and helped retrieve her body.
Police Chief Adnan Wahyu Kashogi confirmed the victim had been attacked while working in the garden close to her home. “The husband found his wife dead after being attacked by a python measuring about 7.8 metres long, with part of the victim’s body still inside the snake’s mouth,” he said. “However, after being pulled out, the victim was confirmed dead at the scene. The husband asked nearby residents for help in evacuating the victim’s body, which was later taken home for mourning.”
The reticulated python, one of the largest snake species in the world, is found across forests, swamps, waterways and even urban areas throughout Southeast Asia. It typically preys on birds, rats, cats, dogs and other snakes, killing through constriction before swallowing prey whole. While human attacks remain rare, they have become more frequently reported in Indonesia in recent years.
Last year, a similar tragedy occurred when 55-year-old grandmother Wa Siti was attacked by a 23-foot python while picking vegetables in her garden. When she failed to return home, her son went searching for her and discovered her partly swallowed by the snake, with her head trapped in its jaws. Footage from the scene showed neighbours using torches and machetes to cut the snake’s head open to retrieve her body. Police Inspector One Hardi said at the time: “The victim had two gardens that were close by each other. She went to harvest vegetables. Her son looked for her in those farms, but she was not there. He also searched in the nearby forest. They found their mother with the snake wrapped around her, and her head in the snake’s mouth. The victim was already dead.”
