In a span of just a few days, two women in Indonesia were found dead after being swallowed whole by giant reticulated pythons. The attacks occurred in separate villages but shared disturbing similarities, drawing renewed attention to these extremely rare but terrifying encounters.
A Horrifying Discovery in a Garden
On April 9, 2025, a 55-year-old woman named Wa Siti was reported missing after she went out to pick vegetables in her garden on Buton Island, part of Southeast Sulawesi. When her son arrived at the scene, he noticed her basket left behind, which raised alarm.
After searching nearby areas, family members and villagers came upon a shocking sight — a 7-meter python had wrapped itself around the woman’s body and had already started swallowing her.
“They found their mother with the serpent enwrapped around her, and her head inside the snake’s mouth,” explained police inspector One Hardi.
The villagers quickly acted, using machetes to kill the snake by decapitating it. But it was too late. Wa Siti had already died, and her body was carefully retrieved from inside the python. Her community gathered for the funeral shortly afterward.
Another Fatal Attack Just Days Earlier
Just a few days before this incident, another woman had met a similar fate in South Sulawesi province, around 500 kilometers away. The victim, a 36-year-old named Siriati, disappeared after going to buy medicine for her sick child.
Her husband, Adiansa, found her slippers and pants abandoned near a path around 500 meters from their home in Siteba village. Nearby, he noticed a python just 10 meters off the trail, still alive, with an abnormally large belly.
Suspecting the worst, he called for help. According to village secretary Iyang, the villagers cut the snake open and discovered Siriati’s lifeless body inside. Police chief Idul, who goes by a single name, confirmed the details to AFP.
A Rare but Growing Pattern
These are not isolated events. Indonesia has recorded multiple similar cases over the past decade. In 2022, a woman in Jambi province was swallowed whole by a python. In 2018, a 54-year-old woman was found dead inside a seven-meter python in Muna town, Southeast Sulawesi.
The year before that, a man named Akbar was discovered inside a four-meter python after disappearing from a palm oil plantation. Pythons, particularly the reticulated python (Malayopython reticulatus), are native to Southeast Asia and are the longest snakes in the world, often exceeding 20 feet in length.
The Natural History Museum in London notes that the longest reticulated python ever measured in the wild was nearly 33 feet long, “more than half the length of a bowling lane.”
While these snakes usually avoid humans, habitat destruction and encroachment into forested areas may be increasing the chances of encounters. In these rare but deadly incidents, pythons have demonstrated their ability to constrict and ingest prey significantly larger than expected — including adult humans.
Local Communities Caught off Guard
In both recent tragedies, the families and local residents acted swiftly but were ultimately unable to prevent the deaths. Neither victim had been reported to have provoked the snake, and both were engaged in routine daily tasks at the time of the attacks.
Following the events, the victims’ bodies were recovered with the help of neighbors, who then assisted in transporting them back to their villages for burial. According to the reports, the villagers’ response was immediate, but the sheer size and strength of the snakes made rescue efforts impossible.
Once they squeeze you to death, it’s too late.