- 5 months ago
The HORRIFYING Last Moments of Python Owner Dan Br kill by his snake
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00:00It was an ordinary summer morning in the quiet English town of Church Crookham, until it wasn't.
00:06Inside a modest home, a mother opened the door to her son's bedroom, expecting to call him down for breakfast.
00:13Instead, she found him lying still, unresponsive, no blood, no struggle, just a terrible silence.
00:21Dan Brandon, 31 years old, was dead.
00:24There were no signs of a break-in, no evidence of an attack, except for one terrifying detail.
00:31His beloved pet, an 8-foot African rock python named Tiny, was missing from her enclosure.
00:39She wasn't in her tank, she was in the room.
00:42And Dan was no longer breathing.
00:45Was this a tragic accident, or had the bond between man and beast crossed a line that could never be reversed?
00:51This is the story of a bit of Dan Brandon.
00:59Dan Brandon lived in Church Crookham, a quiet village in Hampshire, England.
01:03A place where you'd least expect a death that would shake the entire country.
01:07He was just 31 years old.
01:09A fitness trainer, full of energy and life.
01:12Dan was known for his big smile, muscular build, and even bigger heart.
01:16His friends described him as the kind of guy who made everyone laugh.
01:22But beneath his strength and charm was something else.
01:25Something more unusual.
01:27Dan had a deep, almost spiritual connection to animals.
01:31Not just dogs or cats, but reptiles, birds of prey, tarantulas, and snakes.
01:37Lots of them.
01:38He kept over a dozen exotic animals in his room, in a carefully managed environment.
01:44Enclosures, heating systems, safety locks.
01:48But among all his pets, one stood out.
01:52Tiny.
01:53Tiny wasn't tiny at all.
01:54She was an African rock python.
01:57A powerful, unpredictable species that can grow up to 20 feet in the wild.
02:01But Dan had raised her since she was small enough to curl in the palm of his hand.
02:06He didn't see her as a threat.
02:07He saw her as family.
02:09Dan's mother, Barbara Brandon, later told the inquest that Dan had formed a rare bond
02:14with the snake.
02:15He never showed fear.
02:16In fact, she said,
02:18Dan loved all of his animals.
02:20But tiny, he had a special connection with her.
02:23She was his favorite.
02:25Every day, Dan would handle her with ease, coiling her gently around his shoulders,
02:30letting her slide across his arms.
02:32He often shared photos and videos online,
02:35smiling with her wrapped around his body like a living necklace.
02:39To outsiders, it looked dangerous.
02:41But to Dan, it was trust.
02:44His close friend Chris once said,
02:46Dan never feared his animals.
02:48He respected them.
02:50Especially tiny.
02:51She was different.
02:52It was like he understood her.
02:53But in the weeks before his death, something started to change.
02:58Tiny had become more unpredictable.
03:01Restless, aggressive, even uncharacteristically jumpy.
03:05Dan noticed it.
03:07So did his mother.
03:07He reportedly moved tiny out of her usual handling rotation.
03:12He stopped putting her around his neck.
03:15Something about her behavior had unsettled him.
03:17Yet he didn't want to let her go.
03:19He loved her too much.
03:21Still, the question hangs heavy over everything.
03:24Why keep such a powerful creature so close when the warnings were right in front of him?
03:29Was it trust?
03:30Was it denial?
03:31Or was it the belief that love could override nature?
03:35Whatever the answer, it would all come to a head on that quiet summer morning in August 2017.
03:41And by then, it was already too late.
03:46Tiny wasn't small.
03:48Not by any stretch of the imagination.
03:50She was an African rock python.
03:53And at the time of Dan Brandon's death, she measured over 8 feet in length.
03:57With the girth and muscle density to overpower anything her size or larger.
04:03She had outgrown her enclosure long ago.
04:06And yet Dan often let her roam freely.
04:08In his room.
04:09Across his furniture.
04:11Even near his bed.
04:13This wasn't some misunderstood garden snake.
04:16African rock pythons are among the largest and most powerful snakes in the world.
04:20Native to sub-Saharan Africa, they don't rely on venom to subdue prey.
04:25Instead, they wait in silence.
04:27Coiling, watching, calculating.
04:30Then when the moment is right, they strike.
04:33Wrapping their thick, muscular bodies around their target in bone-crushing silence.
04:38Squeezing tighter with each breath the victim tries to take.
04:42Until breathing stops entirely.
04:44In the wild, they're known to take down antelope, crocodiles, even leopards.
04:49To a creature like that, a 13-stone man like Dan Brandon wouldn't be impossible.
04:55But here's where the story becomes even more unsettling.
04:59Dan didn't fear that.
05:00Not once.
05:01In fact, he trusted Tiny more than most people trust their dogs.
05:05According to statements made at the inquest, Dan often slept with his bedroom door closed,
05:10with Tiny loose in the room.
05:12Sometimes she was curled up in the corner.
05:15Other nights, she might have been under the bed, behind a dresser, or simply draped across something warm.
05:23Dan believed she would never harm him.
05:25He believed in their bond.
05:26But snakes, unlike dogs, don't show affection.
05:30They don't wag their tails or lick your hand.
05:33Their calm behavior is simply patience, stillness, observation, and sometimes unpredictability.
05:41Dan wasn't oblivious to risk.
05:43In fact, his mother, Barbara Brandon, told the hearing that he had recently stopped putting Tiny around his neck.
05:49He'd grown uneasy about her size and her strength.
05:51But even then, he never locked her away.
05:54He couldn't.
05:54That bond, that strange loyalty, it ran deep.
05:59And that raises a difficult, haunting question.
06:02Did he love her too much to recognize the danger she posed?
06:06Now, here's something most people don't know.
06:08Owning a snake like Tiny in the United Kingdom is legal.
06:12Under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976,
06:15individuals can keep exotic and potentially deadly animals if they obtain the proper license and follow safety regulations.
06:22But in practice, enforcement is thin.
06:24Local authorities handle licensing.
06:27And unless a complaint is made or something goes tragically wrong, no one checks.
06:31Dan Brandon's case revealed just how easy it is to keep powerful exotic animals behind closed doors with no real oversight, no red flags, no inspections, no warnings, just one man, one snake, in a silence no one heard.
06:48Until it was far too late.
06:51It was the early hours of August 25th, 2017, in Church Crookham, Hampshire.
06:58The sun had barely crept over the rooftops when Barbara Brandon, Dan's mother, began her usual morning routine.
07:05She moved quietly through the home they shared, expecting to hear the familiar sounds of her son.
07:11Footsteps upstairs, music playing, the hum of heat lamps from his collection of exotic pets.
07:17But this morning, there was nothing.
07:20No sound, no movement, just stillness.
07:23Barbara called out to him, once.
07:26Then again, louder.
07:28Still no answer.
07:30Something wasn't right.
07:31She climbed the stairs and walked to the bedroom door.
07:34It was shut.
07:35That wasn't unusual.
07:37Dan often kept it closed to control the heat and humidity for his reptiles.
07:41But behind that door was silence.
07:45She knocked, waited, still nothing.
07:48With a growing sense of dread, she opened the door.
07:51And what she saw changed her life forever.
07:55Dan was lying motionless on the floor near his bed.
07:58His body was still warm, but lifeless.
08:02He wasn't breathing.
08:03His skin had already begun to pale.
08:05His arms were curled awkwardly beneath him.
08:07His eyes, open, and nearby, slithering slowly across the floor, was tiny.
08:16The enormous African rock python, usually kept secured in a custom-built enclosure, was out, completely free.
08:24Not hiding.
08:25Not coiled up.
08:27Just there.
08:28At first, Barbara couldn't process what she was looking at.
08:32There were no bite marks.
08:33No wounds.
08:35No signs of struggle.
08:36Dan looked untouched.
08:39But something was wrong.
08:41Terribly wrong.
08:43The paramedics arrived quickly.
08:44And by then, there was no saving him.
08:47What they found during examination chilled them all.
08:50Dan had suffered a catastrophic rupture of blood vessels in his eyes.
08:55And extensive internal bruising around the neck and chest.
08:58These were not the signs of a fall or medical event.
09:01They were textbook indicators of asphyxiation.
09:03Being squeezed to death.
09:06But by what?
09:07There was only one answer.
09:09Tiny.
09:10The snake Dan had raised.
09:12The snake he trusted.
09:13The snake he had let sleep in the very same room.
09:17The official inquest, led by coroner Andrew Bradley, ruled the cause of death as asphyxiation.
09:23The evidence was clear.
09:24According to Bradley's exact words, the most likely scenario is that the snake coiled around Dan, possibly in a show of affection or stress.
09:34Barbara told the hearing she believed Dan had been handling tiny in his room when the fatal incident occurred.
09:48She said he may have slipped or fallen, or perhaps in a moment of trust he let her coil too far.
09:54But by the time she realized what had happened, it was already over.
09:58The most chilling part.
09:59There were no sounds of struggle, no calls for help, no broken furniture, just one man, one snake.
10:07In a silence that descended so quickly, no one heard a thing.
10:12Tiny hadn't left the room.
10:14She hadn't escaped.
10:14She had stayed, close to him.
10:18Whether that was affection, confusion, or instinct, we may never truly know.
10:24But what we do know is this.
10:26On that quiet summer morning in Hampshire, a man died alone in his bedroom, surrounded by the very creatures he loved most.
10:35And the one he trusted the most may have taken his last breath.
10:38In the days that followed Dan Brandon's death, the quiet village of Church Crookham buzzed with a question that no one could answer.
10:48How could this happen?
10:50He was young, fit, smart.
10:52He loved animals and knew how to handle them.
10:55And yet, he was dead, alone in his bedroom, with no signs of a struggle and only one possible culprit.
11:03An official inquest was launched by the Northeast Hampshire Coroner's Office.
11:07Overseen by Andrew Bradley.
11:10It was a rare case.
11:12One that had never before occurred in the United Kingdom.
11:15A man, allegedly killed by his own snake.
11:19Over the next few months, statements were taken, evidence examined, and expert testimonies reviewed.
11:25And slowly, a disturbing picture began to emerge.
11:28Dan hadn't been reckless.
11:30But he had been comfortable.
11:32Too comfortable.
11:32Witnesses described how Dan allowed Tiny, the eight-foot African rock python, to move freely around his room.
11:41No barriers.
11:42No separation.
11:44He believed they had a bond.
11:45One that didn't require fear or boundaries.
11:48But that belief may have cost him his life.
11:51According to testimony from Dan's mother, Barbara Brandon, Tiny had started acting strangely in the weeks leading up to the incident.
11:59She had grown more aggressive, striking unpredictably, showing signs of stress, even hissing at movement.
12:06Dan himself had begun to limit how he handled her, avoiding placing her around his neck.
12:11Still, he didn't isolate her.
12:14He didn't lock her away.
12:15He was trying to respect her space, while clinging to a trust that perhaps no longer existed.
12:21The coroner reviewed all the medical evidence.
12:24There were no puncture wounds.
12:26No signs of venom.
12:27But what they did find was conclusive.
12:30Bruising across Dan's neck and chest.
12:32Bleeding in the eyes.
12:33And the kind of internal trauma only caused by sustained, crushing force.
12:37Not by accident, not by chance, by constriction.
12:43Andrew Bradley's final ruling was as haunting as it was rare.
12:47Dan Brandon died as a result of asphyxiation.
12:50The snake, Tiny, was instrumental in his death.
12:54It was a case that defied logic.
12:57There was no intent, no motive.
12:59Just raw physical instinct meeting human trust in the wrong moment.
13:03One quote from the courtroom echoed through national headlines and left a chill in its wake.
13:09She may have done it by accident.
13:11She may have seen him as a tree to climb.
13:13But what happened was fatal.
13:15And that's what made this case so deeply unsettling.
13:18This wasn't a violent attack.
13:20There was no warning, no aggression, no sound.
13:24Just one miscalculated movement from a powerful creature.
13:27And it was over.
13:28However, in the eyes of the law, there was no crime, no foul play.
13:34But in the hearts of everyone who heard the story, there was one lingering question.
13:38How close is too close when the animal you love is strong enough to kill you without even meaning to?
13:44And for Dan Brandon, the answer came far too late.
13:48In the weeks following the inquest, a new wave of questions emerged.
13:53Ones that couldn't be answered in a courtroom.
13:56Could a pet snake really kill a human?
13:59Was Dan Brandon's death a once-in-a-lifetime tragedy?
14:03Or a warning sign we've ignored for far too long?
14:06To find out, the investigation turned to experts.
14:09Herpetologists, exotic animal handlers, behavioral biologists.
14:14The few people who truly understand what a massive constrictor like Tiny is capable of.
14:19And their answers were, chilling.
14:22One leading reptile expert, when asked if a python could kill its owner without intending to,
14:28replied bluntly,
14:28Snakes don't see humans as prey, but they do see us as objects.
14:34Warmth, movement, trees to climb.
14:36If a large python coils around a person, even playfully, and tightens,
14:42it doesn't take long before it turns deadly.
14:44Not out of aggression, but instinct.
14:47Let that sink in.
14:49To a snake, you are not a person.
14:51You are an environment.
14:53An object to navigate.
14:54And when they constrict, they don't understand your limits.
14:57They don't stop.
14:59Because they don't know how.
15:01Dan Brandon's case quickly became the first officially recorded incident in the UK,
15:06where a python was considered responsible for its owner's death.
15:10There were rumors and whispers in the past.
15:12Cases that lacked evidence or were ruled inconclusive.
15:16But Dan's wasn't like those.
15:18This was different.
15:19There was a body.
15:21A cause of death.
15:22And a known suspect.
15:24And while experts were careful to say it was an accident,
15:27many of them agreed.
15:29The warning signs were all there.
15:31Tiny had grown large.
15:32And that wraps up today's story.
15:35It's a powerful reminder of how incredible, unpredictable,
15:40and sometimes dangerous the animal world can be.
15:43Whether it's about hard animal or any other creature,
15:47there's always something to learn.
15:49And a reason to respect nature's power.
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