Mum's gruesome death as she's killed and swallowed whole by gigantic python

Daily Mirror

28-05-2025

The woman, 54, became the second person in Indonesia to be killed and digested by the snake species in just over a year as the animal is not known to attack humans
A mum met a horrific end after she was killed and then eaten whole by a python.
The woman, who lived inin a village in Indonesia, became the second person in the country to be killed and digested by the snake species in just over a year.
‌
Wa Tiba, 54, left her home on Muna island to visit her cornfield when she vanished, as reported by the Jakarta Post. The field was about 800m from her house in an area that was surrounded by caves, cliffs and several reticulated pythons - the longest snakes in the world.
‌
Pythons usually digest small mammals with attacks on humans supposed to be as rare as winning the lottery and being struck by lightning at the same time, according to a Washington Post report.
However, back in 2017, the year before Wa's horrific death, a man's body was extracted from a 23-foot-long python, shown in a gruesome YouTube video, reports the Mirror US.
Tiba had been worried about wild boars, not snakes, as she walked through her cornfield that night, reported the Jakarta Post. The pigs had been raiding the crops before she disappeared, which is why she had decided to conduct the inspection of her field.
When she had not returned by sunrise, her sister set out to the field in an effort to look for her.
But when she arrived there, her sibling found only Tiba's footprints, her torch, a machete and slippers. About 100 people from the village of Persiapan Lawela soon joined in the search as they gathered together to comb the fields, Agence France-Presse reported.
‌
The snake was found a few dozen yards from Tiba's belongings, reportedly measuring 23 feet in length and so bloated it could barely move. A long bulge midway down its body had an alarming look to it.
The villagers killed the snake, laying it out on the ground. They then crowded around it, clamouring and crying, some recording videos as a man knelt and carefully cut across the bulge with a machete.
He parted the snake flesh, revealing Tiba intact inside the snake, clothed just as she had been when she went to check her corn.
Despite being intact, it's likely she didn't die inside the snake as reticulated pythons secure their prey with a bite, then wrap their body around the victim, squeezing until the victim cannot breathe, before consuming them, according to The Associated Press.
It's incredibly rare for humans to be eaten, The Post wrote, stating that it's more common to see hoaxes. A single photo of a snake digesting a pig has previously been used to falsely claim attacks on humans in China, Africa and across Southeast Asia.
The two victims in Indonesia were extremely unlucky to fall prey to this species of snake in what was described as very rare circumstances.