Indonesian woman found dead inside python, swallowed whole, authorities say

A missing Indonesian woman was found dead inside the stomach of a seven-metre-long python at the rubber plantation where she worked, authorities told local media.

When the woman, who was identified as Jahrah, 54, did not return home from her job as a rubber tapper on Sunday evening, her husband went out looking for her. They lived together in a small village called Elephant Falls in Jambi province, which is on the island of Sumatra.

While out searching, Jahrah’s husband found her sandals, headscarf, jacket and tools discarded at the rubber plantation — but there was no sign of his wife, according to local reports. That’s when Jahrah’s husband raised the alarm and reported her missing.

Search parties were sent out to find the missing woman and, the following morning, they spotted a python with what appeared to be a large stomach.

The search team killed the snake and found Jahrah’s body inside.

“During the search, the team found a large python seven metres long suspected of having preyed on the victim,” said local police chief AKP S Harefa in a statement to Detik News. “The victim was found in the snake’s stomach.”

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Harefa added that the woman’s body was “not destroyed when it was found in the snake’s body, because it was suspected that it had just been preyed upon.”

Detik News reported that Jahrah has since been buried by residents of her village.

Pythons kill their prey through constriction and swallow their food whole. Cases of humans being swallowed by pythons are exceedingly rare, as pythons typically hunt smaller prey.

According to The Guardian, two similar incidences of humans being killed by pythons also occurred in Indonesia.

In 2018, a woman was found swallowed by a giant python on the island of Muna after going missing in her garden. In 2017, a farmer was killed and swallowed by a python on Sulawesi island.