SUICIDE?: Grant Thompson may have let his venomous pet cobra bite him on purpose in a death wish [FISH BOWL PET
EXPRESS/FACEBOOK/AUSTIN POLICE DEPARTMENT]
Animal lover Grant Thompson, 18, was found alive but unconscious in his car.
He had small puncture wounds on his wrist and was taken by paramedics to hospital. Grant died a short while later after suffering a heart attack.
His death follows the tragic incident in Canada where two brothers were killed by a python that escaped its tank in a pet shop and the alarming news an escaped giant python was on the loose in Kent.
Inside Grant's SUV parked up in a DIY store car park was a crate containing a snake, six tarantulas and a frog – his beloved animals.
But officers became concerned when it was confirmed his monocled cobra was missing from its tank at his home and warned the public the reptile-on-the-loose was "highly aggressive".
Two days later the cobra was found dead nearby and covered in ants by a passer-by.
The reptile had been run over and killed.
"The snake matched the description of and is believed to be the monocled cobra from the incident on July 14,” said the
police.
Investigators first thought Grant's death was a horrendous accident.
But the incident "is being investigated as a suicide at this time", police said, after it emerged Grant posted "I'm sorry" on Facebook at 6pm on the same evening he was found slumped in the car.
They are working on the theory the teen had a death wish and managed to provoke the poisonous snake into sinking its fangs into his wrist.
Grant's family owns Fish Bowl Pet Express in his home town of Temple, Texas, in the United States, where he worked.
DEADLY: Grant Thompson's venomous pet monocled cobra in its tank [FACEBOOK]
His mother Seleese Thompson-Mann bought the business in 2013.
She said: "Animals were a passion of his.
"When he was 4, he got his first big fish tank.
"We had an animal-themed birthday party.
"I had a zoo out in Austin bring in animals. From then, he was hooked."
Grant wanted to breed exotic animals, his mother said.
She said she didn’t know her son, who lived in his own apartment, had the venomous cobra until it was too late.
She said: “I was shocked. He’ll be forever a part of us.
"He couldn’t watch anything suffer or hurt.
"And one of his final gifts is that his eyes were donated, and that was his choice on his driver’s licence.
"And because of that gift, other people will see the beauty in the world."
Daily Star
Posted by Adebayo A J