Python owner held over child deaths in 2013
But no charges yet, despite lengthy probe
A year and a half after two young New Brunswick brothers were strangled to death by an African rock python, the snake’s owner has been taken into custody.
“Overwhelming day,” wrote Mandy Trecartin, the mother of victims Noah and Connor Barthe, writing in a Thursday Twitter post. “Guess there’s a reason I’ve had disturbing recurring dreams of my boys for the past few nights.”
On Thursday, the lawyer for Jean-Claude Savoie confirmed that his client had been arrested in Montreal, where he had moved since the Barthe brothers were killed in Mr. Savoie’s Campbellton, N.B., home in August 2013.
“The RCMP originally announced to me that there would be no criminal charges arising from this investigation,” said Campbellton-based lawyer Leslie F. Matchim.
That all changed, however, when the RCMP swapped out the lead investigator for the case. As early as June, New Brunswick’s Office of the Attorney General confirmed that it was “reviewing the file.”
As of press time, Mr. Savoie remains in police custody in Quebec, although no charges have been laid.
Noah, 4, and Connor, 6, were on a sleepover at the apartment Mr. Savoie shared with his young son when they were killed by a 45-kilogram African rock python that had escaped from a neighbouring enclosure.
Mr. Savoie was the owner of Reptile Ocean, a zoo-turnedpet store located on the first floor of the two-storey building where he lived.
Once part of a zoo exhibit, the python became a pet when Reptile Ocean shifted its operations purely to re- tail. The snake had originally been dropped off at the SPCA in Moncton in 2002, and was delivered to Mr. Savoie by Environment Canada officials who could not find an alternative location to house the animal.
Although the python had been locked in its enclosure, it broke free by travelling through the building’s ventilation system, and is reported to have crashed through the ceiling over the common room housing the brothers.
Mr. Savoie said he did not know the boys had died until he awoke to find that they weren’t breathing. “They were sleeping; they didn’t even open their eyes or nothing,” he said in a shocked telephone interview with Global News only hours after the tragedy. “I feel like they’re my kids.”
The Barthe brothers were the next-door neighbours of Reptile Ocean, and were frequent playmates with Mr. Savoie’s son. After the tragedy, social media photos soon emerged showing the boys assisting in the cleaning of one of Reptile Ocean’s large animal enclosures.
When police arrived at the scene on the morning of Aug. 5, 2013, they found Mr. Savoie pacing outside, his hands covered in blood after an attempt to wrangle the loose reptile.
An RCMP autopsy later confirmed that the boys had died of asphyxiation.
The tragedy attracted international attention, prompted huge crowds to gather at the Campbellton waterfront in a vigil for the boys and spurred a promise from Prime Minister Stephen Harper to review Canada’s exotic animal protocols.
Less than a week after the boys’ deaths, Campbellton locals also organized a protest in support of Mr. Savoie and Reptile Ocean.
“Don’t make Jean-Claude Savoie the bad guy, he never meant for this to happen,” read one 2013 post in the 401-member “Save Reptile Ocean” Facebook group.