SUMTER COUNTY, Fla. -- A nearly 9-foot albino Burmese python got out of its cage overnight and slithered into a 2-year-old girl's bed where it bit and squeezed the small child to death. Lt. Steve Binegar, of the Sumter County Sheriff's Office, said the toddler was strangled by the snake at a home on County Highway 466 in Oxford (see map).

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911 CALL: Emotional Snake Owner Calls 911
PYTHON REMOVED: See Images | Raw Video
AT THE SCENE: See Images | Raw Video
VIDEO REPORT: Python Kills 2-Year-Old Girl

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Pythons can kill by wrapping themselves around a human. Paramedics said the girl was dead when they arrived at about 10:00am. Authorities remained outside the small, tan home, bordered by cow pastures Wednesday afternoon, finally entering the home to retrieve the snake around 4:45pm after obtaining a search warrant. The snake was still alive, despite obvious wounds from being stabbed by the owner (images | raw video). Investigators said the snake measured 8-foot-6, despite earlier reports suggesting it was 12 feet.

According to officials, 32-year-old Charles Jason Darnell, the snake's owner and boyfriend of the victim's mother, 23-year-old Jaren Ashley Hare, said he locked the pet snake up in a glass case Tuesday night, but when he awoke Wednesday the snake was missing from the case. He then searched the home and found the snake on 2-year-old Shaunia Hare and noticed bite marks on the child's head.

When Darnell found the snake wrapped around the girl, he stabbed it until he could pry it off the child while others called 911. Another snake, reportedly a 6-foot boa constrictor, was also in the house.

"She got out of the cage last night and got into the baby's crib and strangled her to death," a crying Darnell can be heard on the 911 call released early Wednesday evening (listen to 911 call).

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, the Burmese python is a "reptile of concern" (see list) and requires a $100 permit, which they said Darnell did not have. Failing to have the permit is a second-degree misdemeanor with a maximum fine of $500 and/or 60 days in jail.

Additionally, either Darnell or Hare could face criminal charges for child neglect or endangerment.

The snake was transported to a veterinarian to determine whether or not it can be saved. If it's put down, it'll become evidence. If it can survive, it will be brought to a permitted facility.

George Van Horn, owner of Reptile World Serpentarium in St. Cloud, said the strangulation could have occurred because the snake felt threatened or because it thought the child was food.

"They are always operating on instinct," he said. "Even the largest person can become overpowered by a python."

Jorge Pino, a spokesman with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said that pythons are not native to Florida and can easily grow to 10 or 12 feet long.

Some owners have freed pythons into the wild and a population of them has taken hold in the Everglades. One killed an alligator and then exploded when it tried to eat it. Scientists also speculate a bevy of Burmese pythons escaped in 1992 from pet shops battered by Hurricane Andrew and have been reproducing since.

"It's becoming more and more of a problem, perhaps no fault of the animal, more a fault of the human," Pino said. "People purchase these animals when they're small. When they grow, they either can't control them or release them."

The Humane Society of the United States said including Wednesday's death, at least 12 people have been killed in the U.S. by pet pythons since 1980, including five children.