Two New Brunswick Boys Killed by Python [UPDATE]

**Funeral services for Connor and Noah Barthe will be held at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Campbellton on Saturday at 4:00 pm. Deputy Mayor Ian Comeau said because the boys were always inseparable, "The wish of the mother is that they be both buried together in the same casket."

The RCMP has launched a criminal investigation after a python apparently got loose above a pet store in northern New Brunswick and killed two young boys.

The python is reported to have belonged to the owner of Reptile Ocean in Campbellton. The brothers, ages 4 1/2 and 6, had been staying overnight with a friend in the apartment above the pet store.

Constable Jullie Rogers-Marsh of the RCMP told the CBC that a preliminary investigation suggests the snake escaped from its enclosure sometime in the night and traveled through the apartment's ventilation system. The store's owner reportedly found the boys dead in their beds Monday morning.

Officials have euthanized the snake, which was identified as an African rock python about 14-feet-long.

Autopsies conducted in Saint John, New Brunswick confirmed the boys had died of asphyxiation.  The investigation is ongoing.