Thats a crock of shit. The media fucked him and his family around by making up bullshit stories. I worked with him at Venom Supplies for a while. The owner (my uncle) Peter Mirtschin found his body. He went through the place and found that the snake wasn't there to be seen. When he was there there was no beer cans anywhere. After the police had investigated it someone had jumped the rear fence, forced open a window and planted beer cans everywhere around the house, taken photos and left. It makes me bloody furious that people think this way of him now. The media has no respect.
My uncle refused to do any interviews with any media except the local Herald newspaper. They were the only polite newspapers to ask for an interview. If you want the real story find the old Herald report of it.

R.I.P. Erik