Akbar Salubiro was a 25-year-old man who went missing on March 25, 2017, after setting off for harvest in a remote
village
A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...
on the western part of the island of
Sulawesi, Indonesia. Akbar's remains were found two days later inside the body of a
reticulated python
The reticulated python (''Malayopython reticulatus'') is a Pythonidae, python species native to South Asia, South and Southeast Asia. It is the world's List of largest snakes, longest snake, and the list of largest snakes, third heaviest snake. I ...
.
Disappearance and discovery of body
The morning after Salubiro was reported missing, a
search party was sent out, and his family became worried and called the police. Later that day, the snake that had eaten Salubiro slithered into Salubiro's backyard near an oil palm plantation. People saw that it had difficulty moving due to its large belly, an official stated. Residents then cut open the belly of the snake and found Salubiro dead inside. People said they heard cries from the palm grove the night before Salubiro was found eaten by the snake.
Aftermath
The death of Akbar Salubiro was the first fully confirmed case of a reticulated python (or in fact any snake) killing and consuming an adult human, as the process of retrieving the body from the python's stomach was documented by pictures and videos taken by witnesses.
Similar cases
On June 14, 2018, a 54-year-old woman named Wa Tiba, also of
Sulawesi
Sulawesi ( ), also known as Celebes ( ), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the List of islands by area, world's 11th-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Min ...
, was also eaten by a reticulated python that had slithered into her garden at her home. In 2022 another 54-year old missing Sumatran woman from Jambi named Jahrah was found inside a python, making this the third fully documented swallowing of an adult human. On 7 June 2024, the fourth confirmed case of full consumption appeared after a woman named Farida was found to have been devoured by a reticulated python.
3 weeks later, in July 2024, another woman named Siriati was discovered inside a python's stomach in South Sulawesi.
In July 2025, a 63-year-old man named La Noti, was eaten by a reticulated python while feeding his livestock in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia.
See also
*
List of largest snakes
The largest living snakes in the world, measured either by length or by weight, are various members of the Boidae and Pythonidae families. They include anacondas, Python (genus), pythons and boa constrictors, which are all non-venomous
Constrictio ...
*
List of solved missing person cases
Lists of solved missing person cases include:
* List of solved missing person cases: pre-1950
* List of solved missing person cases: 1950–1999
* List of solved missing person cases: post-2000
See also
* List of kidnappings
* List of murder ...
*
Man-eating animal
A man-eating animal or man-eater is an individual animal or being that preys on humans as a pattern of hunting behavior. This does not include the Scavenger, scavenging of corpses, a single attack born of opportunity or desperate hunger, or the ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Salubiro, Akbar
2010s missing person cases
2017 deaths
21st century in Sulawesi
Deaths by person in Indonesia
Deaths due to snake attacks
Formerly missing people
March 2017 in Indonesia
Missing person cases in Indonesia