CAMPBELLTON, N.B. -- The lawyer for a New Brunswick man who owned a python that killed two boys said Wednesday he doesn't understand why the Mounties are still investigating the matter when he said they previously told him there would be no charges.
Leslie Matchim said he was told by the lead investigator in December that the RCMP had the file reviewed by a Mountie in Halifax, a senior RCMP officer in Campbellton, N.B., and a Crown prosecutor in New Brunswick.
"And everyone arrived at the same conclusion -- that criminal charges were not appropriate," said Matchim, the lawyer for Jean-Claude Savoie.
Savoie is the owner of the apartment in Campbellton, where four-year-old Noah Barthe and his six-year-old brother Connor were killed last August while they were at the home for a sleepover.
The boys were asphyxiated by a 45-kilogram African rock python that escaped its enclosure in the apartment, slithered through a ventilation system above and fell through a ceiling into the living room where they slept.
Matchim said he has been told that a new investigator was assigned to the case some time in the new year.
RCMP Const. Derek Black said Wednesday he couldn't confirm or comment on Matchim's statements because the investigation is still ongoing.
