Deadly snakes linked to man's death

Police in the US have linked the death of a Briton to a mysterious box of venomous snakes.

Officers in Arkansas found the body of Garrick Wales, 48, from Kilmacolm, Scotland, on May 13 in a rented vehicle near Little Rock National Airport.

Investigators said Wales was pale and surrounded by vomit, but they have not released autopsy results or said whether Mr Wales died of snake bites.

Police believe there is a connection between Mr Wales and a box of four deadly African snakes found the day after his body was discovered – but have refused to say why.

A Little Rock electrician found the box containing the snakes in bags near a motorway. The box, which was marked to indicate it contained venomous snakes, held a 14-inch twig snake, a six-foot green mamba, a four-foot black mamba and a five-foot forest cobra.

He took the snakes to the Little Rock Zoo.

This week, police interviewed zoo chiefs and told them they were investigating an unusual death that may be linked to the snakes, zoo director Michael Blakely said.

Cecilia Hines, associate keeper of the herpetarium at the Memphis Zoo, said any of the snakes could have caused the conditions in which Mr Wales was found. The twig snake was less aggressive than the others, but they were all deadly, she said.

“It would be pretty evident right off the bat (from an autopsy) if he died from snake bites,” Ms Hines said.

There was no indication that the snakes found were being shipped to a zoo and no indication of their ownership, officials said.

Mr Wales’ wife, contacted in Scotland by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newspaper in Little Rock, said she did not want to talk about her husband’s death, but said he was in Little Rock on business.