Indonesian Woman Missing After Picking Peppers Found Inside 5m Python's Stomach

Snake Found During Search... Body Discovered After Cutting Open Abdomen
Fifth Case in Indonesia Since 2017

A woman who went missing in Indonesia was found inside the stomach of a 5-meter-long reticulated python.

According to foreign media including CBS News, Parida (45), a resident of a village in southern Kelempang, Sulawesi Province, suddenly disappeared on the night of the 6th (local time). On that day, she told her husband that she was going to pick and sell chili peppers, left the house, and then lost contact.

When the whereabouts of his wife became unknown, the husband searched the forest with villagers the next day. Suardi Roji, the representative of Kelempang village, said, "When Parida did not return, people went looking for her and only found her abandoned belongings."

As the search continued, a python with a bulging belly was found nearby. When they caught the snake and cut open its belly, Parida's body was discovered. It is reported that Parida's head was immediately visible as soon as the python's belly was cut open.

Burmese python [Image source=Pixabay]

The police and experts estimated that the 5-meter-long snake had wrapped around the woman, suffocated her to death, and then swallowed her whole.

Although it is rare for reticulated pythons to swallow humans whole, such incidents frequently occur in Indonesia. Parida's case is the fifth instance since 2017 of a snake eating a person in Indonesia.

Last year, in the Tinangea area of Southeast Sulawesi, an 8-meter-long reticulated python wrapped around a farmer, killed him by constriction, and then ate him, before being shot dead by villagers. In 2022, a woman in Jambi Province was killed after being swallowed by a reticulated python. In 2018, a 54-year-old woman was found dead inside a 7-meter-long reticulated python in the village of Muna, Southeast Sulawesi.

In 2017, a farmer who went missing in West Sulawesi was found alive but swallowed by a 4-meter-long reticulated python. In the same year, on Sumatra Island, a man working at a palm oil plantation was attacked by a 7.8-meter-long reticulated python, sustaining serious injuries but surviving.